2023 is the 140th anniversary of Franz Kafka’s birth. What is his legacy and why should we still read Kafka?
Czech writer Radek Malý and Czech illustrator Renáta Fučíková discuss their collaborative work during the hybrid event Franz Kafka: A Man of His Time and Our Own, and share their deep knowledge on the man, his works and his influence, and why we should still read Kafka 140 years on. The online talk will be accompanied by a VR experience of being turned into a beetle!
The Talk – Franz Kafka: A Man of His Time and Our Own
Date: 11th March 2023 (Sat) Time: 15:00 – 16:30 Venue: Library, Goethe-Institut Hongkong Speakers: Radek Malý, Renáta Fučíková Moderator: Julia Kuehn
Free Admission. Please register via Email: library-hongkong@goethe.de
Radek Malý, born in 1977, is a Czech author of children's books, poet and translator. He graduated in German and Czech studies at Palacký University Olomouc (Czech Republic). He lives in Prague where he works as a university lecturer, translator to/from German and editor. He published ten books for children (novels, short stories and poetry) and six poetry books. Since 2011 he has been the head of the Department of Creative Writing in the Literary Academy in Prague (Czech Republic). With his books he won the most significant Czech literary awards in the children's book category, Magnesia litera and Zlatá stuha, and also the international award White Raven. He also got the international award Honour List Ibby for his book Listonoš vítr (The Postman Wind) from 2011. He works with the best czech illustrators.
Originally an artist and illustrator, Renáta Fučíková has gradually devoted more time to writing books. She has won many awards including several Golden Ribbons as well as Grand Prix at the Biennial of Illustration in Zagreb 2018 and the prize at the Biennial of Illustration in Tehran in 1997. She was nominated for the prestigious Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2011. She was born in Prague on 3 January and lives alternately in Prague and in Pilsen, where she teaches illustration at the Faculty of Art and Design of the University of West Bohemia.
Julia Kuehn is a Professor of English Literature at the University of Hong Kong. She publishes on nineteenth-century women’s, popular and Empire novels as well as travel writing, focusing especially on Hong Kong and China. Her edited collections include: A Century of Travels in China (2007), Travel Writing, Form, and Empire (2008), China Abroad: Travels, Subjects, Spaces (2009), Diasporic Chineseness after the Rise of China (2013) and New Directions in Travel Writing Studies (2015). Julia was on the Board of the Man Asian Literary Prize (2007-2012) and is currently the Co-Chair of the Hong Kong International Literary Festival.
