
A statue who shakes her head no Gregory Nagy
2019.06.05 | By Manon Brouillet §1. In 1966 the popular French singer Michel Polnareff reached his first audience with the song La Poupée qui fait non. A big success, the song has been translated into Italian (“Una bambolina che fa no, no, no”), Spanish (“Muñeca que hace no”), and German (“Meine Puppe sagt non”). This doll, who has never learnt to say yes, keeps shaking her head from side to side to express her refusal, at the great despair of the singer who cannot but wait for a sign of acceptance. Nagy's special research interests include archaic Greek literature and oral traditions. His ongoing goal is to integrate his research with collaborative as well as intergenerational mentorships and public engagement initiatives, especially in the context of his Harvard College and Harvard DCE courses on the ancient Greek hero (with almost 10,000 alumni), and his HarvardX MOOC, which has enrolled over 90,000 learners since its launch in 2013. His recent monographs include The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours (HUP 2013) and Masterpieces of Metonymy: From Ancient Greek Times to Now (HUP, fall 2015).Since 2000, he has been the Director of the Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington DC, while continuing to teach at the Harvard campus in Cambridge as the Francis Jones Professor of Classical Greek Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature.