Speakers: Jacqueline Rose, Boyd Tonkin

In her new book, Proust Among the Nations – from Dreyfus to the Middle East, Jacqueline Rose takes her far-reaching and often controversial analysis of the Middle East conflict into the heart of Europe. Offering a radical re-reading of the Dreyfus Affair through the lens of Marcel Proust, in dialogue with Sigmund Freud, she traces the shifting dynamic of memory and identity across the crucial and ongoing cultural links between Europe and Palestine. A plea for the responsibility of writing, the book makes the case for literature as a unique resource for understanding the political struggle and suggests new ways to think creatively about the violence in the Middle East.