Beyond Babel: Scholarly Organizations and the Study of Languages and Literatures

by Tom Clark (Editor)

The contribution that scholarly organizations make to the study of languages and literatures is a service to the value of systematically learning and using meaning--understanding that meaning operates in systems. Constructively speaking, these organizations support the teaching and research of our world's experts in grammar, genre, medium, production, reception, exchange, critique, appreciation, and so on. More defensively, they are bulwarks against systems of misinformation, against the empowerment of misrepresentation and distrust between people.
The chapters in this volume range from the Old Testament to Facebook and from East Asia to West Africa via Australia, the Americas, and Europe. The scholarly strength forged across that range speaks to similar strengths that so many scholarly organizations devoted to studies in languages and literatures have cultivated and maintained--often in the face of government indifference or hostility towards the Humanities. Beyond Babel makes a powerful case for their potential.

240 pages, Hardcover

Published December 15, 2022

About the author

Clark was an American poet, editor and biographer. Clark was educated at the University of Michigan and served as poetry editor of "The Paris Review" from 1963 to 1973 and published numerous volumes of poetry with Black Sparrow Press. His literary essays and reviews have appeared in "The New York Times," "Times Literary Supplement," and many other journals.