FOREWORDS/AFTERWORDS
The annual
George Town Literary Festival is the largest international literary festival in Malaysia celebrating world literature, translations and literary art. This year’s festival has the theme
FOREWORDS/AFTERWORDS and wants to elaborate on the question of how history can teach us ways to solve modern day problems. The festival features authors and poets from all over the world, who engage in current topics.
This year the German author
Lukas Rietzschel from Saxony will present his novel
“Mit der Faust in die Welt schlagen”,
which was selected as “Spiegel-Bestseller” in 2018. The novel tells the story of two brothers, growing up in eastern Saxony. It discusses the search for identity which refers to many East-Germans even 30 after years of reunification. The novel also deals with the prevailing hopelessness and lack of opportunities in Eastern-Germany, which is deeply connected to the rise of right-winged populist’s.
A discussion featuring Lilianne Fan, Afsan Chowdhury, Lukas Rietzschel & Mwaffaq Alhajjar, moderated by Suhaimi Sulaiman.
23 November 2019 | 2:00 - 3:30pm
Ground Floor, UAB Building, China Street Ghaut, George Town
The spectacle of mass human exodus was all too familiar in the 20th Century and remains with us in the 21st. Syrians fled civil war into Europe, a million Rohingya encamped in Bangladesh awaiting an uncertain return. While the international community counsels a humanitarian response, host nations come under immense strain – both materially and emotionally. What cultural impact will these mass exoduses make?
A discussion featuring Hamid Ismailov, Saras Manickam & Lukas Rietzschel, moderated by Kam Raslan
24 November 2019 | 12:30 - 2:00pm
Ground Floor, UAB Building, China Street Ghaut, George Town
Fiction is not simply a matter of make-believe; it tells us another side of 'truth'. How do authors challenge official histories and hegemonic narratives through fiction? How can fiction become a vessel to tell untold stories, reimagine history, and rewrite the world?
Lukas Rietzschel
studied political science and German studies at the University of Kassel and continued his Master degree majoring Cultural Management in Görlitz. There, he helped to create a literature house in the old synagogue, which is meant as a space for encounters and discussions. For the manuscript of his debut-novel, Rietzschel received the Retzhof-Preis for young literature.
The George Town Literary Festival is supported by the Goethe-Institut Malaysia and the Association of European Union National Institutes of Culture (EUNIC Malaysia).
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