Spring 2011 | Public lectures and events | Video

Contributor(s): Geoff Dyer, Robert Hudson, David Shields | Is the novel dead? Is art theft? Can you copyright reality? David Sheilds’s Reality Hunger questions every assumption we ever made about art, the novel, journalism, poetry, film, TV, rap, stand-up, graffiti, sampling, plagiarism, writing, and reading. The questions Shields addresses- the bending of form and genre, the lure and blur of the real- play out constantly around us, and Reality Hunger is a radical reframing of how we might think about this 'truthiness'. This discussion of Shields' manifesto will explore the complexities of art and literature in the 21st Century. Geoff Dyer is the author of Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi and three previous novels, as well as seven other non-fiction books. Robert Hudson is the author of The Kilburn Social Club. He has a PhD in history and is currently writing a historical novel, which keeps him up at night. He has written extensively for journals including the Financial Times and the Guardian, on topics including the social aspects of digital media. David Shields is the author of ten books, including Reality Hunger: A Manifesto|, and the New York Times bestseller The Thing About Life Is That One Day You’ll Be Dead.

Contributor(s): Ursula Chowaniec, Izabela Filipiak, Grazyna Plebanek | Three female Polish authors discuss migration in women's writing in Poland. Urszula Chowaniec is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Cultural Studies Andrzej Frycz-Modrzewski Cracow Academy in Poland. Izabela Filipiak is an author of several books of fiction and nonfiction who debuted after the fall of the iron curtain in Poland. Grazyna Plebanek – writer, author of best-selling novels Illegal Liaisons (WAB 2010) and Girls from Portofino (WAB 2005) as well as Box of Stilettos (2002, WAB 2006) and A Girl Called Przystupa. This LSE Literary Festival discussion was supported by The Polish Cultural Institute - part of the Polish diplomatic mission in the UK, tasked with the aim of promoting and fostering an understanding of Polish culture throughout the country.

Contributor(s): James Brabazon, Jill McGivering, Ed Vulliamy | Three of the best British conflict reporters describe three very different ways to tell the stories of three very different war-zones. Fiction, biography and reportage are used to tell gripping narratives of some of the most brutal places in the world. These are the deep, nasty, real stories of Mexico’s drug wars, an African coup, and the so-called war on terror in Afghanistan. One is a novel, another a personal biography and another a searing piece of investigation. Each brings a fresh perspective to the strange new wars of the 21st century. James Brabazon is an award winning frontline journalist and documentary filmmaker and the author of My Friend the Mercenary about one of Africa’s most notorious mercenaries - his friend Nick du Toit. Jill McGivering is a BBC Correspondent who has covered the world from Afghanistan to Washington. Her first work of fiction, The Last Kestral, is about a female war reporter on assignment in Helmand Province. Ed Vulliamy is an international correspondent who has covered conflicts such as Bosnia and Iraq for The Guardian and Observer newspapers. His latest book Amexica tackles the drugs war in Mexico.

Contributor(s): Elif Shafak | Storytelling is an ancient and universal art at the heart of which lies the need to imagine and the ability to empathize with others. In a world beset with cultural clashes, misunderstandings and invisible ghettoes, stories keep connecting us across worlds, across words. Women have always been great storytellers in my country, and yet the written culture is still "a man's world". Why do fewer women write even though they compose the majority of fiction readers today? How can stories connect us across boundaries - be it national, religious or gender boundaries. Elif Shafak is a Turkish writer and the best-selling female novelist in Turkey. She has published novels written in Turkish as well as English, including The Bastard of Istanbul which was long listed for the Orange prize.

Contributor(s): Dr Shashi Tharoor | This lecture is part of India Week 2011. Dr Shashi Tharoor is an elected Member of Parliament and a former Minister of State for External Affairs in the Government of India. A prize-winning author of twelve books, both fiction and non-fiction, he is also a widely-published critic, commentator and columnist. In 2007 he concluded a nearly 29-year career with the United Nations, including working for refugees in South-East Asia at the peak of the "boat people" crisis, handling peace-keeping operations in the former Yugoslavia, and culminating as the Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information. In 2006 he was India's candidate to succeed Kofi Annan as UN Secretary-General, and emerged a strong second out of seven contenders. Dr Tharoor earned his Ph.D. at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at the age of 22, and was named by the World Economic Forum in Davos in 1998 as a Global Leader of Tomorrow. Among his many awards is the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, India's highest honour for overseas Indians.

Contributor(s): Steve Bell, Bryan Talbot | In an interconnected world where culture can transcend borders, the impact of a single drawn image can reverberate around the globe. And yet the humble comic strip, unless making headlines, is frequently overlooked as a source of social commentary. Led by two of Britain¹s most lauded practitioners, this discussion will explore the role of the cartoonist and graphic novelist in the public sphere. Is the comic strip a powerful means of communication illuminating our global civil society, a tool of political satire and social commentary, or simply a story telling device for children?

Contributor(s): Professor Timothy Garton Ash | The border between journalism and academic history is a minefield. Timothy Garton Ash has been crossing it stubbornly for the last thirty years, attempting to combine the crafts of journalist and historian, writing what he calls ‘history of the present’. Taking examples from his most recent book, Facts are Subversive, he talks about the delights and pitfalls of this mongrel craft. Timothy Garton Ash is the author of nine books of political writing or ‘history of the present’, which have charted the transformation of Europe over the last thirty years. They include The Polish Revolution: Solidarity, We the People, The File: A Personal History, and, most recently, Facts are Subversive: Political Writing from a Decade without a Name (Atlantic Books). He is Professor of European Studies at the University of Oxford, Isaiah Berlin Professorial Fellow at St Antony’s College, Oxford, and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University.

Contributor(s): John Thompson, Andrew Franklin | The world of book publishing is going through turbulent times. For nearly five centuries the methods and practices of book publishing remained largely unchanged, but at the dawn of the 21st Century the industry finds itself faced with perhaps the greatest challenges since Gutenberg. A combination of economic pressures and technological change is forcing publishers to alter their practices and think hard about the future of the book. In his book, Merchants of Culture|, the first major study of trade publishing for 30 years, Thompson situates the current challenges facing the industry in an historical context, analyzing the transformation of trade publishing in the United States and Britain since the 1960s. He gives a detailed account of how the world of trade publishing really works, dissecting the roles of publishers, agents and booksellers and showing how their practices are shaped by a field that has a distinctive structure and dynamic. In this discussion Thompson will show how an understanding of the publishing world can shed light on what makes a bestseller today and he will reflect on the key challenges facing publishers and writers as the book - one of the oldest of our cultural artefacts - enters the digital age.

Contributor(s): Professor John Van Reenen, Professor Jonathan Haskel | Where will the sources of new growth come from in the wake of the financial crisis and recession? What is the role of education, labour markets and government policy in supporting this growth? John Van Reenen has been professor of economics at LSE and the director of the Centre for Economic Performance, since October 2003. Jonathan Haskel is a Professor of Economics at Imperial College Business School based in the Healthcare Management and Innovation and Enterprise Group. The CEP is an interdisciplinary research centre at the LSE Research Laboratory. It was established by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) in 1990 and is now one of the leading economic research groups in Europe. The CEP studies the determinants of economic performance at the level of the company, the nation and the global economy by focusing on the major links between globalisation, technology and institutions (above all the educational system and the labour market) and their impact on productivity, inequality, employment, stability and wellbeing. LSE Works is a new series of public lectures, sponsored by SAGE publications, that will showcase some of the latest research by LSE's Research Centres. In each session, LSE academics will present key research findings, demonstrating where appropriate the implications of their studies for public policy. A list of all the LSE Works lectures can be viewed online.

Contributor(s): Dr Shakuntala Banaji, Professor Andrew Burn, Blake Morrison | This provocative panel centres on the range of adaptations practised in today’s diverse multimedia landscape. These include adaptations of format (book to screen, game to film, short-story to stage) and adaptations of place, time and culture (Shakespeare into Hindi film). The panel will ask: How and why do such adaptations retain the original flavour and appeal to wide audiences? Is something lost in the process? Shakuntala Banaji lectures in International Media and Film in the Media and Communications Department at the LSE. Andrew Burn is Professor of Media Education at the Institute of Education. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, former Chair of the Poetry Book Society and Vice-Chair of PEN, Blake Morrison has written fiction, poetry, journalism, literary criticism and libretti, as well as adapting plays for the stage.