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6:00 PM

The Burden of the Past: The Holocaust, Colonialism, and Today's World

Talk and Community Dinner|A public lecture by Navid Kermani, one of Germany's most acclaimed writers, followed by a conversation and communal meal

  • Goethe-Institut Chicago, Chicago, IL

  • English
  • Free and open to the public; please register in advance and bring a photo ID for check-in.
REGISTER HERE

Navid Kermani in the USA © StudioPandan

Navid Kermani in the USA © StudioPandan

In this lecture in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Navid Kermani, in conversation with German Studies scholar Anna Parkinson, will discuss the status of memory culture in contemporary Germany and its role in a pluralistic society. Afterwards, all are invited to continue the discussion over a community dinner.

This event is part of a series by the Goethe-Institut in North America in cooperation with the Thomas Mann House Los Angeles. Our partner in Chicago is the Department of German at Northwestern University.

PROGRAM
5:30 PM Doors Open
6:00 PM Lecture and Discussion
7:30 PM Community Dinner
9:00 PM End of Event

About the Lecture Series 'In Search of a Common Cause: Conversations Across the U.S.'
Navid Kermani, one of Germany’s most acclaimed writers and “among the most thoughtful intellectual voices in German today,” according to the New York Review of Books, recently visited some of the world’s major conflict zones, not as a political analyst, but as a literary observer. Together with various U.S. intellectuals and writers, Kermani will discuss: What does it mean to be a writer in a polarized world marked by war, displacement, and political division? How is the concept of “the West” changing? How might literature, poetry, and religion serve as bridges in fractured societies and foster solidarity? These events bring together acclaimed thinkers from both sides of the Atlantic for a conversation on literature, politics, and spirituality at a moment of profound global change.

About the speakers

Navid Kermani

Navid Kermani is an independent German writer living in Cologne. He studied Middle Eastern Studies, Philosophy, and Theater in Cologne, Cairo, and Bonn, where he received the post-doctoral degree (“Habilitation”). For his literary and academic work, he was awarded numerous prizes, including the Hannah-Arendt-Prize, the Kleist-Prize, the Joseph-Breitbach-Preis, the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, the Hölderlin-Prize and the Thomas Mann-Prize. His literary books are published by Carl Hanser Verlag (German) and Seagull Books (English), his academic and non-fictional works by C. H. Beck (German) and Polity Press (English).
 

Anna Parkinson

Anna Parkinson is Associate Professor in the Department of German at Northwestern University, where she is also a Core Member of the Critical Theory Program, the Jewish and Israel Studies Program, and an affiliate of the Gender and Sexuality Studies Program. Her fields of research and graduate and undergraduate teaching include: twentieth and twenty-first century German-language literature and film, Holocaust and memory studies, critical theory (particularly the Frankfurt School and psychoanalysis), literatures of migration, and forensics and human rights in the Global South. Her monograph, An Emotional State: The Politics of Emotion in Postwar West German Culture was published in 2015 by the University of Michigan Press, and she has essay publications in journals including New German Critique, European Holocaust Studies, and History and Psychoanalysis.

In collaboration with the Thomas Mann House Los Angeles, a transatlantic space for debate in the former exile home of German Nobel-laureate Thomas Mann in Pacific Palisades. The house organizes programs and events in L.A. and beyond, where innovators, scholars and artists from Germany and the U.S. address pressing issues related to democracy, society, arts and culture. Learn more at www.vatmh.org and follow them on social media @thomasmannhouse!