\u201cWhere to begin\u201d \u2013 was the place at which Erica Wagner initiated the event, setting up the primary concerns and philosophical line of conversation that would formulate an intellectually invigorating and moving discussion between these two powerful writers, Elif Shafak and Nadeem Aslam. She began by quoting Nadeem\u2019s essay, considering \u2018literature [as] a public act and a powerful instrument against injustice\u2019.<\/p>\n
Building on this, Nadeem began by recounting his experience as a student here in Manchester over thirty years ago, where \u2018the very basic layers of [his] consciousness and [his] personalities were laid down\u2019. Nadeem talked about Viraj Mendis, who sought sanctuary, at a church in Hulme, from deportation and fear of death after overstaying a student visa. After having been granted asylum from the priest, many solidarity marches, and slogans painted on the university building saying \u2018Viraj Mendis Won\u2019t Go\u2019, Viraj was eventually deported. \u2018Some weeks later\u2019 Nadeem says, \u2018someone had painted over the word \u201cGo\u201d and replaced it with \u201cBe Forgotten\u201d. \u201cViraj Mendis Won\u2019t Be Forgotten\u201d…I remember writing in my journal…that this is the kind of novels I will write\u2019.<\/p>\n
With a marked sense of respect and camaraderie between the speakers, Elif then proceeded to share her frank and philosophical thoughts on the importance of questions, for writers: \u2018I\u2019m interested in asking questions, and hopefully trying to open up spaces where a diversity of opinions can be heard. I like that. But I don\u2019t like it when writers try to teach something. I don\u2019t like it when writers try to preach something. I like it when we ask these questions and always leave these answers to the readers\u2019.<\/p>\n
Elif spoke of the need for a more nuanced sub-politics and form of questioning within that scope: \u2018coming from the women\u2019s movement and feminism – what it taught us was that politics…is also about our daily life, about our kitchens, bedrooms…\u2019 a knowledge that fuels the perpetual labour of\u00a0\u2018trying to bring the periphery to the centre\u00a0 – to me that\u2019s very important\u2019.<\/p>\n
Discussing the necessity and therefore motivation through her work to encourage a greater multiplicity of voices, Elif was refreshingly assured in her views: \u2018I don\u2019t like dualities. Can there be a third way, a fifth way, an eighty-eighth way!? Why not?\u2019 She quoted Adorno, saying that the \u2018intolerance of ambiguity is the sign of an authoritarian mind\u2019.<\/p>\n
It was evident through the question and answer session that both writers converged on intentions and ideas, as Erica noted that they had both presented the \u2018idea, raised in different ways, about the warring [and subversive] function of the story\u2019.<\/p>\n
In considering ideas of identity and the individual, Nadeem quite poignantly commented: \u2018my work is informed by the specific reality of who I am\u00a0– but then there is a bigger thing that I am aware of…there is a We, there is an Us\u2019.<\/p>\n
Thinking about the \u2018imaginative space\u2019 from which their stories come to life, Nadeem was plentiful (and far too modest) in opening himself up to the room: \u2018I always say, my rivers are imaginary, but the fish in them are real…I always say I\u2019m not very imaginative…at the very core of myself, I\u2019m not a very confident person…so I need permission from the real world\u2019.<\/p>\n
Both writers expressed their convergence on matters of literature, politics, sociology and authorial intention \u2013 with an insistent recurrence from both sides of the conversation to write about the connective forces that journey between the borderlines in their work and the real world.<\/p>\n
The event ended all too soon, with a hearty round of applause from a full room and a book signing for which both authors were generous with their time and attentiveness to guests. Both were extremely gracious and humble about the ostensible admiration for both their works and intellectually grounded contributions.<\/p>\n
Elif Shafak is an award winning novelist and best selling female author in Turkey, despite her having much political turbulence with the government there. Her newest novel Three Daughters of Eve<\/em> traces a multiplicity of female perspectives from diverse Muslim backgrounds, with Oxford as a safe space to ruminate on the questions that they raise. Likewise, Nadeem Aslam is a celebrated novelist, originally born in Pakistan. His recent novel The Golden Legend<\/em> forms an attempt \u2018to try to understand how one thing in the world is connected to another\u2019.<\/p>\n Both writers tread the lines between and through dominant and habitual political discourses, particularly in the non-democratic circumstance throughout many countries in the world, where an author\u2019s \u2018fiction becomes even more political\u2019 in trying \u2018to create spaces that are not allowed elsewhere\u2019, and in trying \u2018to give voice to voices that are not heard elsewhere\u2019, as Elif puts it, by asking questions that \u2018we\u2019 are otherwise, not often permitted to ask.<\/p>\n Elif Shafak & Nadeem Aslam, hosted by Erica Wagner; Central Library, 15 October 2017. \u201cWhere to begin\u201d \u2013 was the place at which Erica Wagner initiated the event, setting up the primary concerns and philosophical line of conversation that would formulate an intellectually invigorating and moving discussion between these two powerful writers, Elif Shafak and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":215,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[16,283],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Manchester Literature Festival<\/a> continues until October 22 in venues across Manchester. This piece also appears at Chapter & Verse<\/em><\/a>, the Manchester Literature Festival blog.<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"