Claudio Magris: Narrating Europe writing from the borderland

Europe is under pressure: Migration, globalization, the rise of populism and a turbulent history create complex identity issues in our contemporary societies. Author, professor and essayist Claudio Magris is known for his engagement in European public debates. He has often been invited by the European Commission to discuss the multi-ethnic and multi-national European society, and has won several awards for his engagement. At the Erasmus Prize of 2001 for instance, Magris was renowned for his ability to sharply identify how European and urban-diversity influence our perception of identity.

The city of Trieste and its surrounding region play a key role in Magris' thinking and writing. As a city that is situated at the intersection of the European continent, Trieste has been home for - among many others - Italians, Slovenes, Austrians and Jews. This melting pot of cultures and Italian and Slavic surnames turned Trieste into a borderland with a rich history full of encounters but also with a complicated past.

What to learn from Trieste and its complex history? How should we deal with the past and present of Europe? During this evening at De Balie Claudio Magris speaks with us about literary imagination, changing borders and identity politics. What does his intellectual, artistic and political engagement mean for current public debates in Europe? How can literature contribute to such complex European issues and challenges?

Claudio Magris became known for his cultural history Danube. His most recent work Non Luogo a Procedere has recently been published in Dutch translation by Linda Pennings as Het museum van oorlog (De Bezige Bij).
 

This programme is organized in cooperation with The University of Amsterdam and made possible by ARTES, Huizinga Institute for Cultural History, and the Istituto Italiano di Cultura Amsterdam.