MEMBER BLOG TAG: norbert gstrein
| Thursday, May 7, 2009 11:53PM | | | | Is Fiction Literature? | Tags: Nonfiction and Literature, Nonfiction and fiction, Nobel Prize, Norbert Gstrein, Literary Memoirs, Philip Gourevitch, Colum McCann, V.S. Naipaul
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Is it snobbery, a club mentality, or territorial insecurity that underlies the suggestion that literature consists of fiction and poetry, and only fiction and poetry? For me, this tenuous notion was decisively exploded by the late Seymour Krim, Columbia University prof, at whose “Creative Nonfiction” class most of what was read in the class was either actually fiction, or difficult to distinguish from the best fiction; Krim said he observed only one taboo: Physical violence against a fellow student was absolutely prohibited. (The story of that class is told in my literary memoir, The Killing of an Author.) Indeed, if you were to start reading V.S. Naipaul somewhere in the middle of one of his books, it would be hard to tell the... | | | | | | | Wednesday, May 6, 2009 3:41PM | | | | Literature: Left or Right? | Tags: Nadeem Aslam, Norbert Gstrein, Mariken Jongman, Khet Mar, Damenico Stamone
| | | | Quick! Who were the pro-slavery writers of the 19th Century? Who were the writers who supported the Confederacy during the Civil War? What about the great Nazi writers? Schopenhauer and Nietzche might have influenced German thinkers but it’s not certain that either would have supported Hitler. Film maker Leni Riefenstahl did support the Nazi party.
Almost all writers from the Allied countries supported the war effort of the Allies and many were employed in it, with the exception of American poet, Ezra Pound, who lived in Italy during the war, wrote propaganda for the Fascist government, was arrested and tried for treason after the war. He was found incompetent to face trial and spent 12 years in an asylum. After release he returned to Italy... | | | | | | | Monday, May 4, 2009 11:29AM | | | | Writers and Politics at PEN | Tags: Writers and Politics, PEN World Voices, Nadeem Aslam, Khet Mar, Domenico Starnone, Norbert Gstrein, Mariken Jongman, Larry Siems, Justice for All, Richard Crasta
| | | WRITERS AND POLITICS AT PEN WORLD VOICES
Featuring Nadeem Aslam, Norbert Gstrein, Mariken Jongman, Khet Mar, Domenico Starnone, and Larry Siems.
With politicians becoming writers (Obama, Nixon), and writers becoming politicians (Mario Vargas Llosa, Vaclav Havel, Shashi Tharoor), is it possible to draw a line between politics and literature, and declare that one should never include the other?
Art as neutral to and indifferent to and above politics: it is an appealing self-deception, a bit more prevalent in the West, with writers whose professed stance, “I am not my brother’s keeper; I’m an artist, and that is all I am” seemingly carries this subtext: "I’ve got to look out for Number One,... | | | | | | | Friday, May 1, 2009 4:29PM | | | | Left / Right, Melted Tears | Tags: khet mar, nadeem aslam, larry siems, norbert gstrein, dominico stranone, Mariken Jongman, human rights, politics
| | | Ask a room full of writers whether they have a responsibility to write about politics, and you will get a negative response. Writing should be unfettered by responsibilities, they will assert, while a few liberal types might mutter a defense before being shouted down. I know this because I have asked this question to a room full of writers several times. It turns out I was merely in the wrong room.
From Words to Nations
The panel Left/Right Literature: The Politics of Taking Up the Pen, featured in the chilly Nordic basement of the Scandinavian Society, addressed these questions at length. These writers asserted that the responsibility to engage in political discussion varies from focusing on singular words, to the empowering stories of... | | | | | |
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