Chair: Sarah Kanowski

In an era of waning liberal utopianism, decreasing faith in the myth of economic progress and increasing social and psychological fragmentation, the epithet ’loser’ has acquired a newly powerful resonance. Josh Cohen discusses the experience of being a loser, its literary champions, from Thomas Bernhard to Franz Kafka, and the increasingly manic defences mobilised against this universal condition – from a swollen self-help industry to political demagoguery.

Event details: Tue 07 Mar, 12:00pm on the West Stage