Lesung mit Habib Tengour

We look forward to the event with Habib Tengour and Dr. Radouane Belakhdar moderated by Schirin Nowrousian on December 5th at 7pm at the Institut français!

Habib Tengour was born in Algeria in 1947 and followed his parents into exile in Paris in 1958, where he studied sociology and became politically sensitive. He still commutes between Algeria and Paris. As an author of the second generation of migrants, Tengour is regarded as a representative of an écriture nomade who traces the cultural memory of Algeria in the crosshairs of west-east influences. And of course also the Algerian exile identity, which has become the focus of his interest more than ever since his return to Paris in the early 1990s. In 2016 he received the Dante Prize of the European Union for his complete works.

Tengour is from his novel published by Sujet Verlag this year "The Old Man from the Mountain" read.

In Old von Berge, which he writes from 1977-1981, he traces religious totalitarianism, asks about the intellectual's responsibility in the face of war, corruption and ideological hardening, the suitability of religion, science and politics as viable paths to "truth". . Habib Tengour catapults his characters from the scenes of the Middle Ages in the Middle East – Alamut, Nischapur, Qom and Baghdad – into the Parisian émigré milieu, now into present-day Algeria. A zapping across epochs and continents that sharpens the eye for historical parallels and Tengour's novel - a poetic plea for pluralism and tolerance against the background of the decline of the once brilliant Abbasid Empire (750-1258) - today more relevant than ever lets appear.

This topicality should then be in a discussion with dr Radouane Belakhdar, Germanist and historian from Algeria, who works as a freelance university lecturer and translator. Here the historical elements are linked and supplemented with the current political situation in Algeria. The role of literature in politics and current affairs should also be the focus here.

The event takes place in cooperation with the Institut français, the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation and yedd — German-Algerian Culture E.V.