http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/arts/design/15abroad.html?scp
By Michael Kimmelman
NY Times July 15, 2008
Who am I? Who are we? These interrelated questions are largely defined by culture - the many contributing facets that distinguish peoples and continue to enrich the world’s mosaic by its history, language, customs and traditions. Culture is ultimately defined by the individuals and the greater community of individuals: the nation. Nations that have chosen to preserve and define its culture and national identity, predominantly the nations of Europe, have established governmental cultural ministries.
Reference to this subject on the first day of class, and touched upon again on the second day of class in the farcical Monty Python video clip where the monarch repeats to his subjects “You are Britons!” with the retort, “What’s a Briton?” made me scour through my “articles to read folder” where I had put away a July 15, 2008 New York Times article: Portugal Holds on to Words Few Can Grasp, by Michael Kimmelman. I saved the article because as an undergraduate English major, I wished to learn more of a nationally recognized poet whose works I was not familiar, and remembered and retrieved it as my interest peeked on the literary and cultural aspects as an XMPA student studying comparative public administration.
The elderly heirs of Fernando Pessoa, (b. 1888, d. 1935) an exalted Portuguese poet and writer who the English critic Harold Bloom referred as the most representative poet of the twentieth century, plan to auction some of his works and correspondence. Portugal’s culture minister is distressed, although the National Library of Portugal purchased many of Pessoa’s notebooks from them. At a public forum he said “the state has the power to keep what it decides is national patrimony in the country.”
Pessoa’s last home has become a city-run cultural center and a bronze statue sits outside the “Brasileira” (Portuguese for "The Brazilian Woman") one of the oldest and most famous cafés in Lisbon, which was a favored haunt of Pessoa, intellectuals and writers.
It appears globalization, multi-culturalism and immigration, coupled with possibly a bit of insecurity, but more a desire to preserve its legacy and define its national identity, underlie the Ministry of Culture’s concerns.
LucindoS
NY Times July 15, 2008
Who am I? Who are we? These interrelated questions are largely defined by culture - the many contributing facets that distinguish peoples and continue to enrich the world’s mosaic by its history, language, customs and traditions. Culture is ultimately defined by the individuals and the greater community of individuals: the nation. Nations that have chosen to preserve and define its culture and national identity, predominantly the nations of Europe, have established governmental cultural ministries.
Reference to this subject on the first day of class, and touched upon again on the second day of class in the farcical Monty Python video clip where the monarch repeats to his subjects “You are Britons!” with the retort, “What’s a Briton?” made me scour through my “articles to read folder” where I had put away a July 15, 2008 New York Times article: Portugal Holds on to Words Few Can Grasp, by Michael Kimmelman. I saved the article because as an undergraduate English major, I wished to learn more of a nationally recognized poet whose works I was not familiar, and remembered and retrieved it as my interest peeked on the literary and cultural aspects as an XMPA student studying comparative public administration.
The elderly heirs of Fernando Pessoa, (b. 1888, d. 1935) an exalted Portuguese poet and writer who the English critic Harold Bloom referred as the most representative poet of the twentieth century, plan to auction some of his works and correspondence. Portugal’s culture minister is distressed, although the National Library of Portugal purchased many of Pessoa’s notebooks from them. At a public forum he said “the state has the power to keep what it decides is national patrimony in the country.”
Pessoa’s last home has become a city-run cultural center and a bronze statue sits outside the “Brasileira” (Portuguese for "The Brazilian Woman") one of the oldest and most famous cafés in Lisbon, which was a favored haunt of Pessoa, intellectuals and writers.
It appears globalization, multi-culturalism and immigration, coupled with possibly a bit of insecurity, but more a desire to preserve its legacy and define its national identity, underlie the Ministry of Culture’s concerns.
LucindoS
No comments:
Post a Comment