Professor Ben Hutchinson, Professor of European Literature in the Department of Modern Languages, has contributed to a symposium in The Times Literary Supplement (TLS) on the UK’s membership of the European Union entitled ‘Please Don’t Leave Us Alone’, published on 1 June 2016.
The symposium includes contributions from leading figures in academia, literature and the humanities, asking ‘What in your view have been the main implications of the UK’s membership of the EU for its cultural life and/or your own work?’
In the symposium, Ben argues: ‘Beyond the specifics of cost-benefit analyses – always open to selective quotation – the main implication of the UK’s membership of the EU for its cultural life is quite simply the sense that the EU matters, that British culture is part of European culture.’
‘In the age of world literature, “European” is increasingly becoming a pejorative term, taken to suggest the elitism of Western, canonical power structures. Yet European world literature is surely possible – and so is British European culture.’
Dr Anna Katharina Schaffner, Reader in Comparative Literature, also contributes: ‘A Brexit would be detrimental to many sectors of British society, including academia, making it much harder to recruit and retain academic talent, and impairing cross-border collaborations – a prerequisite of all significant research ventures.’
‘The most surprising aspect of the Brexit debate, however, is the resounding silence regarding the original post-war vision of a Europe that would finally transcend nationalist agendas in the interests of a shared set of political, cultural, and ethical values, and in which the European nations would learn from each other through the free exchange of ideas and expertise.’
To read the full symposium, please see the TLS webpage here:
www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/public/european-symposium/