Long Live the Humanities, Always Alive

Abstract

Krzysztof Sliwa y Eduardo Aguirre Romero 

"Vivan las Humanidades, siempre vivas" is the book that collects my dramatised lecture, given on 18 April 2013, in the Aula Magna of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the University of León (Spain). I have called it "jocoseria", a term frequently used in philological studies, to emphasise that in some respects it is not a conventional lecture, not least because it features Miguel de Cervantes, played by the Mexican actress Ángeles Rodríguez. In our respective interventions, we defend the importance of studying Humanities, and urge students to seek excellence in their training, but also to exercise self-criticism in their efforts to achieve it. The book, intended to be distributed free of charge in university centres, proposes the use of humour as a teaching tool, based on the recognition of Cervantes' irony as one of his great contributions to world literature, which goes beyond satirical mockery.