Georgetown Global Dialogues– Over two days 9th -10th June in Rome this June, some of the most prominent novelists and thinkers of the 21st century will meet for a series of conversations examining the legacy of one of Pope Francis’s key concerns, that of “human fraternity, and how to advance it in a divided world.”
Writers from around the world – of different faiths and none – comprising best-selling novelists to historians and public intellectuals, will discuss literature’s role in a future that strives for human fraternity, but is falling short.
Participants include some of the world’s most influential voices; such as Zadie Smith, Naomi Klein, Pankaj Mishra, Mohsin Hamid, Tash Aw, Ranjit Hoskote, Eva Menasse, Hisham Matar, Kamila Shamsie, Juan Gabriel Vazquez and Javier Cercas.
They will be joined by theologian and writer, Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, who is also prefect for the Dicastery for Culture and Education, a part of the Roman Curia which has co-sponsored the event, along with the All of Us Foundation and La Civiltà Cattolica; the Jesuit journal which is hosting the event at its headquarters, the historic Villa Malta in central Rome
The event is part of a now-established series of conversations that Georgetown University initiated in April 2024. The Georgetown Global Dialogues will continue this year in two of Europe’s greatest cities, Rome in June and Barcelona in November.
Following the death of Pope Francis on Easter Monday many tributes referenced his 2020 encyclical Fratelli tutti (‘Brothers and Sisters All’). Acknowledging deep divisions and a pervasive “globalized indifference”, Francis called for a vibrant “culture of encounter” to bring people together, across divides, around shared concerns and common projects.
Now, some of the leading authors of the day will wrestle with how much progress – or lack thereof – we as a civilization have made in becoming part of a “larger human family”.
Sadly however, against the backdrop of recent global events, it is possible that we are even further from the fraternal celebration that Pope Francis so passionately urged. Political polarization, economic and social inequality, brutal wars and climate crisis have surged worldwide. Instead of fraternity, we are living in an age of increasing rival national, ideological, religious, racial, and sectarian divisions; with individuals and groups each convinced of the justice of their cause while putting forward fervent narratives about their own suffering and the threats posed by various others.
With this in mind, the Georgetown Global Dialogues challenges its guest speakers and audiences alike to consider themes and questions such as:
‘How can we reimagine and pursue human fraternity in a rancorously divided world, where so many people live in a state of constant bewilderment and fear?’, ‘How does literature help us to see the persistence of cruelty, the pervasiveness of suffering, and the possibilities for solidarity across deep divides? And how can it expand the human capacity for self-transcendence and encourage greater awareness of our shared human frailty as a vital constraint on grand schemes of power, control, and conquest?’
Inspired by the legacy of Pope Francis, we look forward to entering this moral maze and reflecting on the moral and spiritual preoccupations of literature in our time.
In 2024, Pope Francis said:
“By opening up to the reader a broader view of the grandeur and misery of human experience, literature teaches us patience in trying to understand others, humility in approaching complex situations, meekness in our judgement of individuals and sensitivity to our human condition.”
The writers will bring their own valuable and personal perspectives to these questions.
Zadie Smith (b.1975) is one of the UK’s most prominent writers. Her debut novel White Teeth was finished while she was still at university, and since then further bestsellers and critically acclaimed works have followed, including her most recent The Fraud, a New York Times and New Yorker book of the year (2023). Smith, who has charted class and culture in her works for decades, will discuss the conflation of individual empowerment with social progress, and where modern literature stands in a secular modern world, with writers seemingly spurning religion as a source of drama, conflict and ideas.
Naomi Klein (b.1970) is a Canadian author and social activist who has produced some of the most impactful non-fiction works of the modern era. The Shock Doctrine diagnosed inherent problems with neo-liberal economics, while No Logo charted the seductions of corporate capitalism. Her latest memoir, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World (published in 2023) drew on her own public profile to investigate how modes of thinking underpin wildly different political narratives and conspiracy theories. Klein will continue to explore these ideas with a discussion on mimetic desire and resentment as barriers to human fraternity.
British Libyan Hisham Matar (b.1970) was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for his debut novel In the Country of Men, while his memoir The Return about the search for his missing dissident father in Libya won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Biography. Matar will be giving his insights into the notion of homeland, and how exile can affect writers and their audiences in the modern contemporary landscape.
Pankaj Mishra (b.1969) is a prolific writer across many disciplines, from his award-winning debut novel The Romantics dissecting an East and West culture clash, to his non-fiction which led to him receiving the Windham-Campbell Prize. The Indian writer will be discussing antagonism and the devaluation of reason and truth, and whether solidarity can be rebuilt through shared histories of frailty and suffering.
The novels of British-Pakistani writer Moshin Hamid (b.1971) covers themes such as identity, romance and extremism, and his second novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, sold over a million copies and has featured on BBC and Guardian “best books of the decade” lists. Hamid is well placed to speak on contemporary literature and how it deals with the vast majority of the world’s population who live outside the Western world. Also speaking on this subject will be Tash Aw (b.1971) who rose to worldwide fame following his debut novel The Harmony Silk Factory which was translated into over 20 languages and established him as one of the most prominent Malaysian voices in 21st century literature.
Ranjit Hoskote (b.1969) is a celebrated poet and critic, receiving multiple honours from The Sahitya Akademia, India’s National Academy of Letters. His output includes his own work such as Jonahwhale, as well as his translations including the 14th-century Kashmiri mystic-poet I, Lalla: The Poems of Lal D?d. Hoskote will be involved in discussing the positive progress of publication through global networks, but also the inherent inequality across cultural and intellectual groups.
Eva Menasse (b.1970) is an acclaimed writer, journalist and translator from Austria. She explores Viennese society and history in her novels, framed through the Jewish experience during the rise and horrors of Nazism, such as her most recent Darkenbloom. She will contribute to a discussion imagining an alternative public sphere, one of social friendship between writers and artists free from political pressure.
Kamila Shamsie (b.1973) is a British-Pakistani writer whose novel Home Fire reimagined Antigone in a modern British Muslim setting, with the threat of terrorism and its effects on identity, winning the Women’s Prize for Fiction. Shamsie will grapple with the legacies of racism and colonialism and how those from the Global South can guide the West in a political landscape increasingly becoming more hate-fuelled and divisive.
Colombian writer Juan Gabriel Vazquez (b.1973) has had his work published in over 28 languages, including The Sound of Things Falling which won the Alfaguara Prize for its narrative dealing with the drug wars and the fallout on the public and private life of Colombia’s institutions and people. Vazquez will be bringing his insight to how literature that explores themes of reconciliation and justice can transfer over to real-world politics.
Javier Cercas (1962) focuses on the Spanish Civil War and subsequent regime in much of his literature, including Soldiers of Salamis which mixtures fact and fiction to investigate how history and memory is used in the present. Cercas will speak about the apparent diminishing relationship between faith and literature.
These writers will join others, including critics and journalists, for a foundational effort to cultivate the “spirit of fraternity” that Pope Francis had envisioned.
A full schedule can be found HERE. + All talks will be available to watch free: HERE
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