Presidential Discussion by Andre Aciman
Friday, October 9, 2009 | 3:16pm
The Event
Date: Tuesday, October 20, 2009. 4:00 PM.Location: Stanford Humanities Center, 424 Santa Teresa Street, Stanford University
Parallax: Exile as Metaphor
"When I remember Alexandria, I remember a place from which I liked to imagine being elsewhere. This is my definition of home."
In his talk, "Parallax: Exile as Metaphor," novelist and literary critic André Aciman will discuss the distortions and disruptions caused by exile and displacement. He will focus not on the experience of exile itself, but on how the broader condition of being “out of place” can produce intellectual, psychological, and aesthetic displacements as well. Using examples from literary texts, the visual arts, and his own life and work, Aciman will propose a notion of reversal both as a literary act and as a form of identity.
About André Aciman
André Aciman is the author of "Out of Egypt: A Memoir" and the collection of essays "False Papers: Essays on Exile and Memory." He has also co—authored and edited "The Proust Project and Letters of Transit," and most recently has written a novel, "Call Me by Your Name."
Born in Alexandria, he lived in Italy and France. He received his PhD from Harvard University and has taught at Princeton University and Bard College and is currently Distinguished Professor and chair of the Graduate Center's doctoral program in comparative literature as well as the founder and director of The Writers' Institute. He is the recipient of a Whiting Writers' Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a fellowship from The New York Public Library's Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers. He has written for "The New York Times," "The New Yorker," "The New York Review of Books," and "The New Republic." His novel, "Eight White Nights," will appear this winter.
Photo © Sigrid Estrada
