Programme of the 9th international literature festival berlin 2009

and women are depicted with delicacy and sensitivity. The issue of love and violent sexuality is
treated fearlessly and openly.
Taleb Al-Refai (Kuwait). Al-Refai, storyteller and novelist, doesn't shy away from thorny issues. His
themes are the lives of immigrant guest workers in Kuwait, sexual abuse, and the oppression of
women. He reads his short story “Minor Thefts.”
Sat, 12.09. at 3 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Upper Foyer
Focus Arab World_Reflections
Lecture: The Heritage of Arabic Literature
Youssef Ziedan (Egypt)
PRESENTER: Stefan Weidner
The professor, director of the Bibliotheca Alexandria and winner of the 2009 Arab Booker Prize
discusses in his lecture the semantics of the Arabic word “Turath” (legacy/heritage). Only 5% of the
most important handwritten manuscripts have so far been released, hundreds of thousands remain
unpublished. And so “heritage,” according to Ziedan, is the result of individual interests.
Consequently, the knowledge of existing manuscripts is indifferent, and the view of history remains
one-sided. An event with simultaneous interpretation. Headsets are available in the ground floor
foyer.
Sat, 12.09. at 4.30 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Upper Foyer
Focus Arab World - Reflections
Power and Culture
with Yassin Adnan (Morocco), Taleb Al-Refai (Kuwait) and Alawiyya Sobh (Lebanon)
PRESENTER: Sonja Hegasy
Culture can be both the opponent and the tool of political power. It can resist, be critical, open eyes
– but it can also parrot what has been said, obfuscate, and obey. The significance of culture can be
seen most clearly in the repressive instrument of censorship, which is also a political tool in Arab
countries. How can culture and politics constructively collaborate? What framework does culture
need? How, and on which levels, can and should culture enrich and change politics? An event with
simultaneous interpretation.
Sat, 12.09. at 4.30 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele / Side Stage
Kaleidoscope
Otto de Kat (The Netherlands)
MODERATION: Florian Höllerer
“A wonderful novel,” said Cees Nooteboom of his countryman Otto de Kat’s first book, The Figure
in the Distance, published in English translation in 2002. The English publication of Man on the
Move followed seven years later. Now, the author is presenting his novel Julia, to be published in
2010. In this work, he remains true to his overriding theme: the life not lived, which is inseparably
bound to loneliness and loss.
Sat, 12.09. at 5 pm, Collegium Hungaricum Berlin
Kaleidoscope
Alban Nikolai Herbst (Germany)
PRESENTER: Wilfried F. Schoeller
“My most passionate and bitter book, and maybe my most poetic and most beautiful,” is how the
Berlin-based writer, librettist, opera critic and radio director Alban Nikolai Herbst described his
novel Meere (t: Oceans). Gregor Eisenhauer wrote in the Frankfurter Rundschau: “This book must
be read.” The author will read from the edition published by Axel Dielmann Verlag.
Sat, 12.09. at 5 pm, Konzerthaus am Gendarmenmarkt / Carl-Maria von Weber Hall
Specials
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