Proust Among the Nations – from Dreyfus to the Middle East

In partnership with Birkbeck Institute of Humanities

Event Information and Booking

19th June, 2012
6:30 pm - 8:00 pm
Birkbeck, University of London, Bloomsbury, London WC1E 7HX. Room 421, Torrington Square main entrance
Professor Jacqueline Rose, Queen Mary, University of London; Professor Bryan Cheyette, University of Reading; Professor David Feldman, Pears Institute for the study of Antisemitism, Birkbeck, University of London; and Dr Ingrid Wassenaar, author of ‘Proustian Passions’. Chair: Dr Anthony Bale, Birkbeck, University of London
Antisemitism, Film/TV, Identity, Literature, Memory Studies, Nationalism, Palestinians, Politics, Psychoanalysis
Europe, France, Israel, Middle East, Palestine
19th century, 20th century, 21st century
Marcel Proust, Sigmund Freud

The conflict between Israel and Palestine has become one of the most enduring and it seems intractable problems of our time. In her new book, Proust among the Nations, Jacqueline Rose uses psychoanalysis, literature, and politics to reveal the conflict as a distinctly Western problem.

Re-examining the Dreyfus affair through the lens of Marcel Proust in dialogue with Freud, Rose offers a new perspective on the rise of Jewish nationalism and the subsequent creation of Israel. Taking the writings of Beckett and Genet, and writers, artists and filmmakers from the Middle East, she traces the shifting dynamic of memory and identity between Europe and Palestine and proposes new ways to think about the political struggle and violence in the Middle East.

This round-table will explore and interrogate Jacqueline Rose’s provocative thesis from a range of disciplinary perspectives.

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