Underskog

HOW NOT TO TALK ABOUT LITERATURE
an encounter with Ainehi Edoro

On Wednesday May 24th the Nigerian blogger and professor of literature Ainehi Edoro from Marquette University (WI, USA) visits Oslo for a keynote speech and a workshop. TrAP has invited Edoro to talk about the tendency in the field of literature to exotify African fiction, by first searching out the geographical references and its complementary expectations before valuating a text’s literary intrinsic values.
To Edoro this is to reduce the literary value of a writer’s work, for the benefit of anthropological classification. We wish to invite to a multi-disciplinary discussion on how a culture relative reading of a work of art may get in the way of an understanding of the work’s content. The consequence often is for this work to not get it’s proper assessment in the domain of art history. Ainehi Edoro will emphasise the alternative.
Edoro’s partner of conversation this Wednesday is the Norwegian and South-African musician Nosizwe. She will first lead a blind-reading session, as a warm-up to Edoro’s keynote. Here the participants will get an opportunity to encounter extracts of texts and to suggest its sources, ahead of the reference being made available. The session is open to a small group of 15 pre-registered participants.
After Edoro’s keynote in the auditorium at Kunstnernes Hus at 12am she and Nosizwe will have a conversation and open up for questions.
Finally Edoro will lead a workshop in reading technique, on the basis of the topic she raises. Again, this session is open only for a pre-registered group of 15 people.

KUNSTNERNES HUS May 24th, 2017
10.00 “Blind reading” – session in Atelier Felix, for 15 pre-registered
12.00 Ainehi Edoro: How not to talk about African fiction, incl talk
14.00 Ainehi Edoro – workshop in reading technique in Atelier Felix, for 15 pre-registered
The event is free. Edoro’s programme will be in English.

Registration: [email protected] – please specify what part of the programme one wishes to register for.

As the organiser of this event TrAP first became aware of Edoro by reading this article in the Guardian: www.theguardian.com/books/2… This additional article by Ben Okri speaks into the same topic www.theguardian.com/comment…
The event takes place at Kunstnernes Hus organised by TrAP, with the publishing house Solum as partner of collaboration for the first part (blind reading session).

More about Edoro:
Ainehi Edoro is an Assistant Professor at Marquette University in Milwaukee where she teaches global Anglophone literatures. She holds a doctorate from Duke University. She is the founder and editor of brittlepaper.com—an African literary site. Brittle Paper is to be considered more a platform on its field of focus, rather than a pure forum for literature. As editor Edoro ties up to contributors whom in various ways opens up the discussion on the African within international literature. Edoro is born in Nigeria and lives in Chicago.