Lizzie Doron is our twelfth «Friedrich Dürrenmatt Guest Professor for World Literature» in the fall term 2019. She will give a weekly seminar on «Breaking the Walls».
Lizzie Doron lived on a kibbutz before studying linguistics and becoming a writer. Being a member of the so-called second generation (the generation born to Holocaust survivors), she interweaves personal with fictional history in her books. In 1998, she published her first autobiographical novel Why Didn’t You Come Before the War?, which is now a mandatory reading in Isreali schools. This debut has been followed by Peaceful Times (2005), The Beginning of Something Beautiful (2007), Once There Was A Family (2009) and My Mother’s Silence (2011). Doron writes in Herbrew, her books have been translated into German, French, Italian and Russian.
Discussing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
With Who the Fuck is Kafka (2015) and Sweet Occupation (2017), Lizzie Doron puts the focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The two documentary novels deal with encounters with political activists and Doron’s friendship with a muslim journalist. Subsequently, Doron has been criticized as a “traitor” in Israel as well as praised for her literary bridging between Israelis and Palestinians.
Breaking taboos through literature
From September to December 2019, Lizzie Doron will be teaching as Friedrich Dürrenmatt Guest Professor at the University of Bern. In her weekly seminar on «Breaking the Walls», she will discuss a selection of texts which broke taboos, promoted intercultural dialogue and advanced social as well as political change. Besides teaching her class, Lizzie Doron will participate in workshops and readings in different towns and cities across Switzerland.
