“I can’t bear not to be contemporary.” – The Ambivalence of Modernity in the Works of Rashid al-Daif
Lecture | 7 p.m., 22/March/2010, at the Orient Institut, Zokak El Blat.
by Dr. Andreas Pflitsch | Free University of Berlin
This lecture deals with the works of one of the most prominent contemporary writers in Lebanon. In most of his writings, Rashid Daif treats the complex interdependence of modernity and tradition in today’s Lebanon. In his lecture, Dr. Pflitsch examines the author’s relationship to his own protagonist and shows that this relationship incorporates a poetics that can be described as deeply enlightening.
Andreas Pflitsch is a Research Fellow at the “Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung” (Research Centre for Literature and Culture) in Berlin, Germany, and teaches at the Institute for Semitic and Arabic Studies at the Free University of Berlin. He is also a member of the Project “Travelling Traditions: Comparative Perspectives on Near Eastern Literatures” at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Berlin.