Conversation with authors Stefan Hertmans (Belgium) and Francis Kirps (Luxembourg)
Literature has always had a need to shake up the contours of the established order of things. To deconstruct, to (de)contextualize, to raise awareness, to change. Through the world it materializes, literature aims to displace the reader from their comfortable position and compel them to question whether things are exactly as the dominant centers of power serve them.
Through the forbidden love story of Christian Vigdis Adelaïs who falls in love with David Todros, the son of a prominent rabbi, Stefan Hertmans in the novel "Тhe Convert" speaks about a society shaped by prejudice, hatred and fear of the different. Although the events described in the book took place almost a thousand years ago, the conflicts, misunderstandings and perspectives offered are extremely contemporary and relevant for our modern (liberal) society.
The short story collection “Mutations” by Luxembourg writer Francis Kirps brings us 7 short stories and a poem, each based on classic texts, from Little Red Riding Hood to Virginia Woolf. In the book, which won the “Servais” Prize and the European Union Prize for Literature, the author starts from well-known texts to change, recycle and transform them. And the story of literature that deconstructs and changes perspectives is only one aspect of this atypical more ethical approach.
Among other things, we talk with Stefan Hertmans and Francis Kirps about how and why stories can disturb and whether in that disturbance they can also bring about change.
The event will be moderated by Aleksandar Madjarovski and Biljana Crvenkovska.
