Panel Discussion: Nationhood & Statelessness
With more people displaced around the world today than in any other time in modern history, what role can literature play in bringing issues of flight, expulsion and migration to the forefront? Join
Jenny Erpenbeck and
Omid Tofighian as they discuss stories of nationhood and statelessness with
Julian Burnside, Australian barrister, human rights and refugee advocate.
Jenny Erpenbeck is a bestselling author and director. Her works include her latest novel
Going Went, Gone, as well as
The Old Child & The Book of Words, Visitation and
The End of Days. She won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. The New Yorker has praised her “classical restraint”, comparing her to JM Coetzee, VS Naipul and Teju Cole. Her fiction is published in 27 languages.
Jenny spent a year talking with refugees in Berlin to write her acclaimed novel; and Omid brought to light questions of detention and survival in translating Behrouz Boochani’s prize-winning memoir No Friend but the Mountains.
Omid Tofighian is a translator, lecturer, researcher and community advocate based at the American University of Cairo and University of Sydney. His work combines philosophy with interests in rhetoric, religion, popular culture, transnationalism, displacement and discrimination. He works with asylum seekers, refugees and young people from Western Sydney. He has published numerous book chapters and journal articles and is author of Myth and Philosophy in Platonic Dialogues. He has translated a number of articles for Behrouz Boochani for The Guardian.
Jenny Erpenbeck's visit to Australia is supported by the Goethe-Institut.
This event is part of the series
Jenny Erpenbeck in Australia.
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