March 3, 1997 Volume 86, Number 19 | Prev | Next | Index
Princeton University Office of Communications, Stanhope Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544
Start from the personal
By Caroline MoseleyNobel laureate in literature teaches about intellectual life of his native Japan
Kenzaburo Oe, the 1994 Nobel Laureate in Literature cited by the Swedish Academy for the "poetic force" of his writing, is on campus this year as a visiting lecturer in East Asian Studies and fellow of the Humanities Council.
To date, Oe has published some 20 novels, a series of novellas and nine books of nonfiction, as well as many essays. In his Nobel address (delivered in English), he declared, "The fundamental method of my writing has always been to start from personal matters and then to link them with society, the state and the world in general."Labouisse fellow to spend year at SEWA in India
The 1997-98 Labouisse Fellow is Sangita Shresthova '97, a Germanic languages and literatures major who is also earning a certificate in the Program in Theater and Dance.
She will spend a year in India studying the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA), a nongovernmental organization offering loans to women through locally based cooperative banks. Founded about 25 years ago, SEWA is based in Ahmedabad but has branches in Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta and elsewhere. Shresthova plans to focus on the effect SEWA has "on traditional ideals of Hindu womahood among its participants," she says.
PWB editor