6
L
aureates
1981–2014
However, there also turns out to be more to the term “Humanities” than meets the eye. When
I was still in my youth, “Humanities” referred almost exclusively to the world of the classics. A
“humanist” was somebody who knew Greek and Latin and was imbued with the Greek and Latin
spirit. The word has expanded its meaning in our times to include what we rather ambiguously call
the “Human Sciences” (...). I once wrote, I do not recall where, that we were confined as Arabists
to the ghetto of the extravagant and to the outskirts of the Humanities. How times have changed!
Modern times have witnessed a spectacular
volte-face
. A simple Arabist like myself may have been
given the Award for having used Arabic to open up channels of communication with them (which
is where the concept of “communication” comes in). As if you warn me not to overstep the mark,
I have been summoned to this ancient land of Asturias, the heroic birthplace of the Reconquest,
though I have always maintained my faith in my roots.
Emilio García Gómez
—
Prince of Asturias Award
for Communication and
Humanities
1992
Excerpt from the speech given on the
occasion of receiving the Prince of
Asturias Award for Communication
and Humanities on 31/10/1992.
31
st
O
ctober
1992
