Emina Melonic

Emina Melonic is a writer and critic focusing on film, books, and culture. Originally from Bosnia, she immigrated to the U.S. in 1996 and became an American citizen in 2003. She is a regular contributor to Chronicles Online, Splice Today, and Law and Liberty. Her writings have appeared in the Claremont Review of Books, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The New Criterion, Modern Age, The American Mind, City Journal, and American Greatness, among others. She is currently writing a biography of Edward G. Robinson (University Press of Mississippi) and also working on a book about Ronald Reagan’s Hollywood years. She holds a B.A. in English, German, and Art History from Canisius College, M.A.s in Humanities, Theology, and Philosophy, and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University at Buffalo. She lives with her husband and son near Buffalo, NY.

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What is your current position?
Writer.

What inspired you to choose this career path?

I am not sure whether it was a conscious choice but rather a way of expressing and working out ideas. Writing is a natural act for me, even if I don’t particularly enjoy it.

What are you currently working on?

A biography of Edward G. Robinson.

How did you hear about the Claremont Institute?

From a friend.

What is your fondest memory of the Claremont Institute?

Meeting John Eastman!

There are all sorts of educational programs out there for current and rising conservative professionals. What do you think makes the Claremont Institute’s Fellowships unique?

There is a great sense of intellectual authenticity and integrity, not to mention, intellectual grit and rigor among the Claremont Institute fellows. It is these characteristics that distinguish Claremont from others. In addition, there is dynamism that one often does not see in other similarly minded institutions. A connection to the world and society is essential in order to work with the ideas of the American Founders.

What qualities do you believe will make impressive statesmen/women in this century and why?

More than anything, we need men and women of substance. We live in a transient culture of empty punditry and bad politics, and so, it’s important to move beyond that rather sad condition. When I say “substance,” I mean people that are metaphysically secure and who have intellectual and political integrity.

With this new US Administration what do you hope will be the defining purpose and outcome?

I am hoping that the reality of globalist totalitarian ideology will be actually taken seriously. The fight is and has always been about national sovereignty. Without this first principle, we cannot accomplish anything substantial.

This may not be entirely a political or administrative issue but I also think that we will see many bioethical problems coming into the foreground in the future. Many have addressed certain issues of technological takeover and “transhumanism,” but I also see a problem of assisted suicide and euthanasia becoming one of the most significant problems we face. Without a doubt, we are surrounded by the “culture of death,” and a notion that God does not exist. This kind of condition can, unfortunately, be contagious among those that are not as metaphysically secure as they should be. A culture that sees no value in the dignity of a human being at any stage of his or her life is bound to live in darkness. And so, I hope that the thrust toward a realistic optimism in the new administration might be able to turn the culture around, ever so slightly, so that people see life rather than death.

What did you discover were the greatest challenges and/or rewards while doing research  for your books on Edward G. Robinson and Ronald Reagan?

Practically speaking, trying to maneuver between different places (around the country!) in collecting the research has been difficult but not impossible. Another difficulty lies within the biographer’s need to understand his or her subject, and sometimes subjects don’t like to reveal themselves too much. Trying to piece together a mystery that is one person (in this case Edward G. Robinson and Ronald Reagan) has been a great challenge but it is also the reward. One feels like a detective, sifting through the rooms of memories not one’s own, seeing a glimpse of one life, and trying to present a story that deserves to be told, a story of a life that should not be forgotten.

What books are you currently reading?

Dostoyevsky’s The House of the Dead

What book, film, or speech has left a lasting impression with you and why?

It’s impossible to pick one film, but if I had to, it would be one of the masterpieces by the great Orson Welles—F for Fake (1975). It is a curious and unusual film—partly a documentary, partly a lie, but mostly a beautiful and humorous meditation on art and mortality. Welles always asked great philosophical questions with his films without ever uttering one question. Here too, he is a bit of a trickster, but engages the audience on the question of fakery and authenticity. Who are we to ourselves and to others? Do we hide our faces behind the metaphysical masks, or do we live in truth? Is art itself just a beautiful lie? The film itself is an experience, not just from a cinematic perspective but also in relation to our understanding of reality and our motivations in life.

Do you have a favorite quote and if so, would you share?

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

What is the most distinctive attribute/character of the people in the country where you grew up that you genuinely admire?

One of the things that I most admire about the Bosnian people is the fact that they are driven, incredibly stoic, and at the same time, they don’t take themselves seriously. They see absurdity in life, and have a great sense of dark humor about it.