[attach id=246364 size="medium"]Egyptian-British novelist Ahdaf Soueif will be reading from her latest book Cairo: My City, Our Revolution.[/attach]
Malta will be hosting the European Writers’ Council’s biennial Forum Mare Nostrum for the first time this week, bringing together leading figures from the world of literature from Europe and the Mediterranean.
The theme of this seventh edition – Discourse/Disorder – is set to explore how literature narrates revolution and social upheaval.
Forty-one delegates from the EWC will be participating, with the Akkademja tal-Malti representing Malta.
One of the main guest speakers will be acclaimed Egyptian-British novelist Ahdaf Soueif, who will be reading from her latest book Cairo: My City, Our Revolution during the morning session of the forum.
Dr Soueif will be discussing the book and her reflections on revolution and the ‘disorder’ inherent in the ‘act’ of literature with writer and academic Adrian Grima, from the Department of Maltese at the University of Malta, together with the audience.
Soueif’s engaging but fast-moving account of the (ongoing) revolution that has swept Egypt off its feet is a very authentic, personal narrative which, however, manages to focus on the protagonists of these epochal events rather than on herself.
Written with the perceptive eyes and uncompromsing honesty of a political and cultural analyst and the passion of a Cairene, the book focuses on the long, difficult process of turning a painful revolution into a long-term reality for one of the most important countries of the Arab world, and the Mediterranean.
After the forum, Soueif will also be taking part in a public encounter at the Auditorium of the Valletta Campus of the University in St Paul Street, Valletta, during which she will be interviewed by Prof. Stella Borg Barthet about her literary works and activism.
Literature, film and social strife
Another highlight of the forum includes the showing of parts of the documentary film London is Burning (2012), which is about the August 2011 London riots, by Prof. Haim Bresheeth, who teaches at the renowned School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London.
The film, which features a number of key activists and social theorists in conversation about this painful social event, raises questions about the police and its communal concept and the crisis of capitalism, its corrosive effects on society and its moral values.
Prof. Yosefa Loshitzky will talk about Popular Cinema as Popular Resistance: Avatar in the Palestinian (Imagi)nation.
The proposed paper argues that while Avatar is a spectacular Hollywood blockbuster and, as such, seems to lie comfortably within the boundaries of the dominant capitalist/imperialist ideology, a close analysis of the film may uncover a secondary text which allows it to be read as subverting, or, at least, challenging this ideology from within.
Dr Marco Galea will give the first plenary talk of the forum, introducing the main theme, while poet and academic from the University of Cyprus Stephanos Stephanides will speak about The Disorder of Discourse.
He will be followed by Suzanne Joinson, who will speak about The Medina and the Architecture of Light: Bridging the Stories of East and West, a Writer’s Perspective.
A panel discussion about Translation Disorder, chaired by Dr Clare Vassallo, will feature UK-Palestinian writer Adel Bishtawi, linguist and literary translator Albert Gatt and Maltese-Palestinian novelist Walid Nabhan. A second panel, chaired by Dr Simone Inguanez, will deal with Righting the Mediterranean.
The panelists are Dr Karsten Xuereb, an expert on cultural relations between Europe and the Mediterranean, French poet and novelist Cécile Oumhani and French-Moroccan cultural operator Kenza Sefrioui.
The forum is being convened by the Akkademja tal-Malti in collaboration with the Department of Maltese in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Malta.
It is supported by the Finance Ministry, Malta Tourism Authority, EWC, Authors Licensing and Collecting Society, French Embassy in Malta, European Commission Representation in Malta, British Council, Bloomsbury, Marsovin and the St John’s Co-Cathedral Foundation.
Forum Mare Nostrum will be held at the Grand Hotel Excelsior in Floriana on Thursday from 8.30am to 3.30pm. Those who would like to attend can send an e-mail to Carmel Azzopardi on caraz546@hotmail.com. There is a registration fee of €30.