Walter Benjamin Kolleg

Breaking the Walls

Wednesday, 2019/09/18, 14:15

Lizzie Doron, author, Israel
Lizzie Doron, author, Israel
© Lizzie Doron

The israeli novelist Lizzie Doron will be teaching as the twelfth „Friedrich Dürrenmatt Guest Professor for World Literature“ at the University of Bern in the autumn term 2019. She will give a weekly seminar on the subject "Breaking the Walls".

Event organizer: Walter Benjamin Kolleg | Guest Professorship | Seminar
Speaker: Lizzie Doron author, Israel
Date: 2019/09/18
Time: 14:15 - 15:45
Locality: F011
Unitobler
Lerchenweg 36
3012 Bern
Characteristics: not open to the public
chargeable

Breaking the Walls

Some subjects are close to my heart. It was always these subjects, along with the stories they generated, that got me to write. The journey I underwent myself – being a member of the so-called second generation (the generation born to Holocaust survivors) – shall be an introduction and an inspiration for students to address their own issues and make their own discoveries.

During the course, we will focus on subjects which broke taboos, crossed borders and made changes on a personal, social or political level: We will discuss gender struggles, the battle against racism, the fight for equal rights, (new) feminism – and their influences on modern literature.

We will read a selection of books by Hans Fallada, Sebastian Haffner, Sylvia Plath, Sibylle Berg (and others). Finally, each student will be requested to interview a person outside of his/her immediate circle of acquaintances (e.g. a refugee, someone of a different faith or persuasion), trying to cross borders, listen, comprehend – Breaking the Walls.

Das Seminar findet in englischer Sprache statt.

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Lizzie Doron wurde 1953 in Tel Aviv geboren. Sie lebte eine Zeit lang in einem Kibbuz, bevor sie Linguistik studierte und Schriftstellerin wurde. Doron schrieb autobiographische Romane, in denen sie sich mit der Generation der Holocaust-Überlebenden auseinandersetzte. Mit Who the Fuck is Kafka (2015) und Sweet Occupation (2017) machte sie zuletzt den Palästina-Konflikt zum Gegenstand ihres Erzählens. 2018 wurde sie mit dem Friedenspreis der Geschwister Korn und Gerstenmann-Stiftung ausgezeichnet.