ATHOL FUGARD,
Sir, - Thomas Cahill pointed out that the Irish saved civilisation; we are appalled to hear that these same people now will have a hand in destroying it by supporting the abolishment of Classics in Queen's University, Belfast.
If we barbarians in California and South Africa can still afford classics, we find it shocking that a university of this calibre could be considering closing this precious bastion of the humanities. It attracts students from all over the world to take degrees in Classics: for instance, a graduate student from Harvard attended the programme in Belfast and then went on to discover an "important piece of ancient papyrus" (Telegraph, June 22nd).
Classical poetry can best be appreciated in the original language. Greek tragedy allows us to face our greatest fears and enables us to live a life of quality. Both Plato and Aristotle claim that happiness can derive only from a life based on the good. The first and still most relevant definition of what it means to be an ethical human being is found in classical texts. Too few subjects stress morality in such a persuasive way, and this is so important at this time when the world seems ruled by the powerful rather than the ethical.
This closure seems just another step in selling out to these forces: downsize for economic reasons. (We hate the word "downsize," but we're using the vocabulary of the illiterates, because that will be soon all we have left.) Can't anyone think of human needs?
If this trend continues, institutions that stop teaching classics will no longer have the right to call themselves universities, but will have to settle for being technical colleges. - Yours, etc.,
Athol Fugard,
Playwright,
Nieu Bethesda,
South Africa.
Marianne McDonald,
Ph.D., MRIA,
Professor of Theatre
and Classics,
University of California,
San Diego,
USA.