Louise Pryke The world’s first known author is widely considered to be Enheduanna, a woman who lived in the 23rd century BCE in ancient Mesopotamia (approximately 2285 – 2250 BCE). Enheduanna is a remarkable figure: an ancient “triple threat”, she was a princess and a priestess as well as a writer and poet. The third… Read More Enheduanna, princess, priestess and the world’s first known author
By Cormac Campbell The poet Michael Longley has said that the “complexities and difficulties of literature” must not be simplified to fit changing outlooks. He was speaking after an event in his honour at Armagh’s Robinson Library marking his Feltrinelli International Prize for Poetry last year. At the event the 83-year-old reprised the lecture he… Read More Michael Longley: Literature should not be changed to remove ‘complexities’
Jacintha Buddicom and George Orwell were childhood soul mates who lost touch until he was dying. A new postscript to her genteel memoir sheds a disturbing light on their friendship, finds Kathryn Hughes Kathryn Hughes Eric & Us by Jacintha Buddicom From the late 1960s my family spent every weekend and most of the summer… Read More Such were the joys
Reviewed by Aziz Rana Ntina Tzouvala, Capitalism as Civilisation: A History of International Law (CUP, 2021) At the heart of the post-World War II international order was a legitimating narrative premised on the idea that the world system was no longer imperial; it had now become a community of equal states. This meant that international law established… Read More Ntina Tzouvala, Capitalism as Civilisation: A History of International Law
Mother of Cities to me / For I was born in her gate,Between the palms and the sea / Where the world-end steamers wait Rudyard Kipling, To the City of Bombay “Few people who have criticized England from the inside have said bitterer things about her than this gutter patriot”: George Orwell IT WAS a pity that Mr.… Read More On Rudyard Kipling: by George Orwell (1942)
By Richard Wolin Martin Heidegger’s influence has been enormous. Richard Rorty once justifiably claimed that it would be impossible to write the intellectual history of the 20th century without acknowledging Heidegger’s titanic impact. But these tributes to Heidegger’s prodigious achievements are question-begging in one crucial respect: they neglect to consider what we are actually reading when… Read More To Sanitize the Master’s Corpus: On the Heidegger Hoax
Most people who bother with the matter at all would admit that the English language is in a bad way, but it is generally assumed that we cannot by conscious action do anything about it. Our civilization is decadent and our language – so the argument runs – must inevitably share in the general collapse.… Read More George Orwell on politics and the English language (1946)
Modern-day Brits have honoured historian Ramachandra Guha for a rather unusual book that is mainly about white Brits who were severely punished for going against the British establishment of their day to give their all for Indian independence. On Monday, Guha was in London to collect a £5,000 cheque for winning the highly regarded Elizabeth… Read More Ramachandra Guha’s book wins Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography 2023
First posted December 15, 2011 This article appeared in the India International Centre Quarterly special issue titled India and China: Neighbours, Strangers, edited by Ira Pande; 2010. Glory Daysby Dilip Simeon Many years ago, when some of us argued about the ills of the present and, more to the point, the ills of contemporary India, we… Read More Glory Days, or remembering how Indians love(d) China
