Reading Cécile Wajsbrot June 7, 2019
Poster on the occasion of Cécile Wajsbrot’s reading, “Explorer la question de la création” – “The Cycle of the Arts: Haute Mer,” as part of the International Colloquium in Honor of Margarete Zimmermann, “In the Dialogue of the Arts...,” on June 7, 2019.
At the heart of Cécile Wajsbrot’s latest novel, *Destruction* (Paris 2019) is a woman who had devoted her life to reading and writing but who, in her country’s newly established dictatorship, is now permitted by a mysterious client to use only an audio blog as a means of artistic expression. Through the contrasting interplay of various voices, this dystopia depicts the terrifying transformation of society from an open one to an authoritarian one: how did it come to this, what were the first signs, and what could have been done to prevent it?
With *Destruction* and the other four novels of the “Haute Mer” pentalogy, from which readings were presented that evening, Cécile Wajsbrot not only reflects on the emergence of various art forms, their reception, and their functions, but also offers a diagnosis of contemporary societies.
Cécile Wajsbrot, a multi-award-winning author, translator, and literary scholar, divides her time between Paris and Berlin and is therefore regarded as an exemplary representative of “writing between worlds.” This forms the basis of her unique place within contemporary French literature, as her work not only examines and captures the immediate present like a seismograph but is also characterized by a historical consciousness and an interest in processes of cultural mediation. During the 2018–19 winter semester, Cécile Wajsbrot held the Poetics Lectureship at the newly founded Center for France | Francophonie at the TUD Dresden University of Technology as part of a DRESDEN Fellowship.
Further information about the colloquium can be found on this page.
WHEN? June 7, 2019, 6:00 p.m.
WHERE? Literaturhaus Villa Augustin, Antonstr. 1, 01097 Dresden
Photo 1 taken during Cécile Wajsbrot’s reading as part of the international colloquium “In Dialogue with the Arts: New Perspectives on the Work of Cécile Wajsbrot” on June 7, 2019, at the Literaturhaus Villa Augustin in Dresden. © Das Erich Kästner Haus für Literatur Dresden
Photo 2 on the occasion of Cécile Wajsbrot’s reading as part of the international colloquium “In Dialogue with the Arts: New Perspectives on the Work of Cécile Wajsbrot” on June 7, 2019, at the Literaturhaus Villa Augustin in Dresden. © Das Erich Kästner Haus für Literatur Dresden
Photo 3 on the occasion of Cécile Wajsbrot’s reading as part of the international colloquium “In Dialogue with the Arts: New Perspectives on the Work of Cécile Wajsbrot” on June 7, 2019, at the Literaturhaus Villa Augustin in Dresden. © Das Erich Kästner Haus für Literatur Dresden
Photo 4 on the occasion of Cécile Wajsbrot’s reading as part of the international colloquium “In Dialogue with the Arts: New Perspectives on the Work of Cécile Wajsbrot” on June 7, 2019, at the Literaturhaus Villa Augustin in Dresden. © Das Erich Kästner Haus für Literatur Dresden
Logo: The Erich Kästner House of Literature, Dresden, https://www.kaestnerhaus-literatur.de/