In the midst of the growing culture wars, but also of competing concepts about what culture is, Antonio Monegal (Barcelona, ??1957), professor of Comparative Literature at the Pompeu Fabra University, published last year Like the air we breathe: the sense of la cultura (Acantilado), a book in which he proposed a broad understanding of the term, in which both Wagner and Rosalía enter, but above all that emphasized that culture is the toolbox of our life. Now Like the air we breathe is the new National Essay Prize awarded by the Ministry of Culture and endowed with 30,000 euros.
The jury, which included the writer Najat el-Hachmi, the demographer Andreu Domingo, the historian Carmen Iglesias and the philosopher Joan-Carles Mèlich, awarded last year, highlighted “the excellence of style and creativity” and put “the focus of attention on the broad concept and the integrative nature of culture, which allows us to understand and define what we are and what we do: a phenomenon that gives meaning to our society.” Furthermore, he highlighted that “Monegal, in the face of those who criticize the elitist nature of culture, argues, with a clear, fresh and direct narrative, in favor of it as a vital resource, as a basic necessity in which “We have to invest because we cannot afford to live without it.”
Surprised by the award, and on his way by train to Dènia, where tomorrow he will participate in the Humanities Festival, Monegal explains that he began to think about the book when he left the presidency of the Executive Committee of the Barcelona Culture Council. “After four years of listening to the arguments of both politicians and cultural professionals about the value of culture, I thought of contributing something that would clarify a question that is always avoided: they always say that we must defend culture, but no one agrees on what culture means. And, therefore, what culture should be defended? Should we only defend high culture or should we also defend people who are dedicated to hip-hop and who makes video games? For me everything falls into the same package even though they are different things, but they are all part.”
And, the professor highlights, he has recently curated the Sade exhibition. Freedom or evil at the Center for Contemporary Culture of Barcelona, ??”people talk about the world of culture separated from the rest. For me the world of culture is the world, there is no world outside of culture. We have to worry if we consider that you can find better life models and greater resources to learn empathy, solidarity and understanding of the other’s point of view in literature or in certain films than simply by looking at the information that comes to you on TikTok.”
“This – he emphasizes – must be defended by accustoming people, that is, by educating people to access those cultural resources that will give them a more complex vision of the world and existence. People complain about misinformation, but “The problem of misinformation is above all the educational problem, lack of critical capacity to distinguish.”
And although the book is timeless, it recognizes the importance of the current culture wars in it. “I have been working on the presence of wars in culture for many years. My next book in Acantilado next year is titled The Silence of War and it is about wars in literature and the visual arts. The most important conflicts that confront us surrounding are cultural conflicts, for ethnic, religious, national reasons.
“In other words,” he continues, “the issue of Russia-Ukraine is an issue of ideas about the nation. But even things that do not represent a violent struggle, such as the issue of resistance to immigration, gender, Homophobia, resistance to another family model, are cultural issues. The book embraces a more anthropological vision of culture and therefore tries to explain that everything we see in literature, in cinema, in series, is not separated from everything the other, which is our vision of identity, of living our values”.
Along these lines he explains that “the issue of collective memory has a very important role both in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and what is happening now in Palestine. What role does the memory of the Holocaust play in certain readings of what is happening in this moment? Fundamental. It is difficult to interpret these historical events. We help ourselves through films, documentaries, testimonies, novels, cultural elements.”
In short, he concludes, “culture is everything we use to organize our existence and give it meaning. If someone likes Rosalía, it has the same function in their life as if they like Wagner. A drag on the entire debate about The defense of culture has always been to approach it through the defense of high culture and the humanities. We have to start somewhere else. When people say ‘I’m not interested in culture’, they are not interested in a certain type of culture, there is no one who does not have some kind of connection with music or likes to go dancing. For me, a child who learns to play the violin is as much culture as the orchestra that plays in the auditorium. Both things are part of the same system”.
As for whether culture is political, or pre-political, remember that “Rancière and Marina Garcés say that politics is the management of the space of the common, and this space of the common is cultural. A depoliticized culture runs precisely the risk of being pure decoration. Culture can be political even if it does not intend to be. It will be political to the extent that it provides us with a way of understanding the world and of seeing where we are going and where we want to go, regardless of whether it makes political statements or not. Jane Austen “She is deeply political, she is an author who gives a model of life for women of her time, which at that time was radical and revolutionary and without a pamphletary message.”
“The production of mentalities, how mentalities are constructed in itself is already a political act. The whole issue of collective memory, of life models, of what life options the inhabitants of a certain country have to live freely with their preferences and their identities. That is constructed. We are offered examples, models. I really like the idea of ??the toolbox. When faced with a situation, we need to resort to the tools that we have, that we have learned. Some are tools complex to deal with complex problems and others are simplistic. The complex ones are more difficult to acquire. The greater the complexity of the cultural repertoire that we can access, the more it will help us. We are in a difficult time. Everyone agrees that there is a “A lot of challenges. How do we address climate change? This is cultural. We need to think about it in terms that are transmitted to people, what can be done, and that’s where everything from science fiction novels to newspaper stories come in.”
