ACFNY SUPPORTED: FESTIVAL NEUE LITERATUR 2024: “FRAGMENTS OF MEMORY: ‘THE LAST WITNESSES’ AND ‘OCTOBER SEVENTH.’ TWO STAGE WORKS.”
Image: Deutsches Haus at NYU
NOVEMBER 12 | 5:30 – 7 PM
Deutsches Haus At New York University, 42 Washington Mews, New York, NY 10003
PLEASE RSVP HERE
As part of this year’s Festival Neue Literatur, Deutsches Haus at NYU and the Austrian Cultural Forum New York present a conversation about “Fragments of Memory: ‘The Last Witnesses’ and ‘October Seventh.’ Two Stage Works” between writers Doron Rabinovici and Tess Lewis, which will be introduced by Linda Mills, President of NYU.
About “Fragments of Memory: ‘The Last Witnesses’ and ‘October Seventh.’ Two Stage Works”:
In the aftermath of horrific events, how can fragments of memory be shaped into a whole? What responsibilities to remember do we owe those who have undergone or witnessed such events? The Austrian writer and historian Doron Rabinovici, born in Israel, explores these questions with a visceral immediacy in his two stage works, The Last Witnesses and October Seventh. Using direct testimony, reports, and descriptions, Rabinovici has created two powerful works on stage that convey both the horrors of recent history and the importance of facing atrocities in creating a future for all peoples. In conversation with Tess Lewis, Doron Rabinovici will talk about the creation and stagings of these profoundly moving stage works.
About the Participants
Doron Rabinovici, born in Tel Aviv in 1961, has lived in Vienna since 1964. He is a writer and historian. His work includes short stories, novels, essays and scholarly studies. Publications include, amongst others: Instanzen der Ohnmacht. Wien 1938-1945. Der Weg zum Judenrat; (Jüdischer Verlag bei Suhrkamp – 2000); Andernorts. Novel; (Suhrkamp – 2010) Neuer Antisemitismus? Fortsetzung einer globalen Debatte; edited together with Christian Heilbronn and Natan Sznaider, (suhrkamp edition – 2019); Die Einstellung. Novel; (Suhrkamp – 2022); Die letzten Zeugen (The Last Witnesses). A theater project of the Vienna Burgtheater in cooperation with Matthias Hartmann 2013 – 2015; Der siebente Oktober (October Seventh) a drama collage of a prologue and reports from victims of the Hamas massacre. For his work Doron Rabinovici has been awarded, among others, the Clemens Brentano Prize, the Jean Améry Award and the Anton Wildgans Prize.
Tess Lewis is a writer and translator from French and German. Her translations include works by Peter Handke, Walter Benjamin, Anne Weber, Lutz Seiler, Philippe Jaccottet and Montaigne. Her translation of Maja Haderlap’s Angel of Oblivion won the ACFNY Translation Prize and the 2017 PEN Translation Award. Her essays and reviews have appeared in many journals and newspapers. A Guggenheim and Berlin Prize Fellow as well as a “scholar of note” at the American Library in Paris, she serves as an Advisory Editor for The Hudson Review and has curated Festival Neue Literatur, New York City’s annual festival of German language literature in English.
Linda G. Mills, JD, LCSW, PhD, is the 17th president of New York University and the Lisa Ellen Goldberg Professor of Social Work, Public Policy, and Law. Mills is also a fellow of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare. Her research funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Justice has reshaped the treatment of domestic violence and her restorative justice-based programs are currently being adopted in several jurisdictions. Linda Mills is a widely published author of articles appearing in Harvard Law Review, Cornell Law Review, Journal of Experimental Criminology, among others. Her books have been published by Princeton University Press, University of Michigan Press, Springer, and Basic Books. As a filmmaker, she has produced award-winning documentaries that have debuted at Tribeca Film Festival and screened worldwide.
About Festival Neue Literatur
Festival Neue Literatur (FNL) was established in 2009 as a collaborative project of New York’s leading German-language cultural institutions, i.e. The Austrian Cultural Forum New York; the German Consulate General New York; the Consulate General of Switzerland in New York; Columbia University School of the Arts; Deutsches Haus at NYU; and the Goethe-Institut New York. Festival Neue Literatur is the first and only festival to spotlight German-language and U.S fiction together and is proud to provide New York audiences with access to exciting new literature from Austria, Germany, Switzerland, and the U.S.
“Fragments of Memory: ‘The Last Witnesses’ and ‘October Seventh.’ Two Stage Works” is presented with additional support from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).