Woodstock Rd
Oxford OX2 6HS
UK
The 2017-18 Humanitas Weidenfeld Visiting Professorship in Comparative European Literature will be held by Elif Shafak, an award-winning novelist and the most widely read woman writer in Turkey. She is also a women’s rights activist and an inspirational public intellectual and speaker.
Thursday 17 May: Collective Amnesia and Collective Remembrance
Defending the Art of Fiction in the Age of Post-Truth
What is the role of literature in our increasingly fractured and fast-changing world? Is it possible to write a-politically or do writers have a responsibility to speak out – and, if so, how? Can fiction address political issues in a way that ordinary public discourse cannot? Elif Shafak will explore these questions in three lectures and an open discussion.
After each lecture there will be the opportunity to ask questions, and all are welcome to join in the closing discussion.