Four Q + Four A asks faculty members Leonard Barkan, Arthur W. Marks '19 Professor of Comparative Literature. and Director of the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts, Costanze Guthenke, Assistant Professor of Classics and John Maclean, Jr. Presidential University Preceptor, and Susan Moinfar, Lecturer in Near Eastern Studies,- to answer four short questions that aim to incite, intrigue, surprise and inform. Respondents are free to interpret or willfully mis-read the questions to suit their interests and viewpoint.

— The Editors

Leonard Barkan

1. What would kitsch be in your field?
   Kitsch Renaissance poetry would probably be that sort of love lyric about the perfections of your beloved's body that Shakespeare parodies in "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun" and that Michelangelo parodies even more brilliantly in a poem that begins "You have a face sweeter than boiled grape juice"-- a poem that he inscribes right next to one of his most beautiful drawings of a Madonna and Child. But perhaps you're asking about kitsch literary criticism. That would probably be the kind of analysis which argues that every literary work is unified, harmonious, and a freshly windexed casement on real life. And then, of course, there's the crowning instance of kitsch in my field: the Renaissance Fayre.
2. Are you a supporter or critic of academic trends?
   I watch from a distance as they come and go. In the eighties and nineties, I worried that literature and art were being swallowed up by second-rate philosophy, linguistics, and sociology. Now as the pendulum swings, I find myself a tiny bit nostalgic for deconstruction, Marxism, and identity politics. No, that's not true: identity politics I'll never be nostalgic for. It's like being paid to be a narcissist.
3. Does Princeton have style?
   Thank God, no. I divide my life between 08540 and 10001. When I come back to campus from a weekend in Chelsea, I am thrilled to be in a style-free zone.
4. What is the Bermuda triangle?
   When I was fifteen, my piano teacher wanted me to play Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" in a recital. I thought it was too hard, and a little bit kitschy (cf. question one), so I escaped on a plane to Bermuda, where relatives of mine had a little empty cottage; and I practiced bicycle riding instead of rolling octaves and tenths. My piano teacher was on the phone demanding that I return, whereas my mother-who was an adventuresome lady-liked the idea of my British colonial breakout and urged me to stay put. So I guess the two of them fighting over me would be my Bermuda triangle.

Costanze Guthenke

1. What would kitsch be in your field?
   Sentences that begin with the phrase "the cradle of Western civilization"; my copy of a little plug-in light-up acropolis. I am much more partial to the second.
2. Are you a supporter or critic of academic trends?
   It can be very uplifting to realize one is either. As I work in a field that is in the making I am mainly gratified to discover that there are such things as trends.
3. Does Princeton have style?
   It has a tone.
4. What is the Bermuda triangle?
   Working across the division lines of two or more disciplines. More generally: the half-way point between here and there.

Susan Moinfar

1. What would kitsch be in your field?
   Kitsch in my world are things that pretend to represent authentic Persian or Iranian culture, but are really designed to appeal to Western tastes. Most Persian-Rock fusion music coming out of LA (Black Cats ) is kitsch. Dariush is not kitsch, Googoosh is not. "Reading Lolita in Tehran" is kitsch. (Azar khanum bebakhsheed.) "Searching for Hassan" or Tara Satrapi's "Persepolis" are definitely not.
2. Are you a supporter or critic of academic trends?
   I'm a total supporter of academic trends, if being trendy means being open to new ideas, and being comfortable with change. Who wants to be mired in old fashioned thinking? Wearing your grandmother's clothes can be fun on occasion, but if that's all you wear, it becomes - kitsch.
3. Does Princeton have style?
   Princeton is style. Firestone in the late Fall, with leaves dancing around students walking to class is style. Princeton's unexpected courtyards filled with gardenias is style. Of course, Persian Movie Nights are quite stylish.
4. What is the Bermuda triangle?
   The Bermuda triangle I worry about is the one inside you, where you can get lost and loose your identity.