You are invited to another trilingual event with readings from Sylvia Bledow’s latest publication Cultúr na Cuimhne sa Ghearmáin (The Culture of Remembrance in Germany) and ensuing conversation.
The book, published in 2023 by Coiscéim, Dublin, explores Germany’s relationship with memory on a local and national level following and in response to the Nazi regime. The author begins with memory culture in her own community, relating how attitudes towards occurrences and historical figures have changed over the years. She goes on to describe different and occasionally striking forms of remembrance in Germany as a whole. The silence of the post-war years on the atrocities of the Third Reich has been broken but there is still much controversy about both remembering and understanding the evils of the past and recognizing the wrongs done to millions of people. The current culture of remembrance is not solely focused on the past but addresses the rise of nationalistic and xenophobic movements on the far right as well.
Readings will be held in Irish and German, the discussion will be in English.
About the author:
Born in the USA in 1947, Sylvia Bledow has come to Ireland again and again. There she has not only learned the Irish language, but also traditional Irish singing. Her love of Irish culture and language has resulted in four books in Irish: “Fínéid as an tSín” (2014), “Ceithre Bhean Déag as an Ghearmáin” (2017), “Bliain na nIontas – 1989 sa Ghearmáin: dialann” (2019) and “Cultúr na Cuimhne sa Ghearmáin” (2023). She has also written poems and essays in Irish that have been published in literary magazines. The US-born American came to Germany for the first time as a student when she studied for two semesters at the University of Freiburg. After spending some time in Latin and Central America as well as in China, the globetrotter has been living with her husband in a small community in Baden-Württemberg, Germany for over 40 years.
