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PODCAST

LitHouse podcast

The House of Literature in Oslo - Litteraturhuset

LitHouse is the English language podcast from the House of Literature (Litteraturhuset) in Oslo, presenting adapted versions of lectures and conversations featuring international writers and thinkers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

society & culture books

All Episodes

1:02:20

Hamlet on the West Bank: Isabella Hammad and Priya Bains

LitHouse podcast ·

2024/12/08

Sonia Nasir is a somewhat successful actor in London. After a distressing end to a love affair, she travels to see her sister in Haifa, Israel, where their father’s family is from, and where she’s hardly been since she was a teenager. Soon, she is pulled into a local theatre production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet on the West Bank. And as the past catches up with Sonia, ghosts appear off stage as well.Enter Ghostis a complex and skillfully composed novel, an exploration of identity and belonging, the

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1:02:42

The Turbulence of History: Margaret Atwood and Jenny...

LitHouse podcast ·

2024/11/24

When she began her masterpieceThe Handmaid’s Talein 1984,Margaret Atwoodwas living in West Berlin, just a stone’s throw away from the Wall to East Berlin, with its omnipresent secret police. The world behind the Iron Curtain clearly influenced her famous future dystopia, in which she set as a rule that she would not include any horrors that humans had not already done in some other place or time in history.On the other side of the Wall, authorJenny Erpenbeckgrew up in the east, the German Democratic

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1:16:15

The Literary Prophet: Margaret Atwood

LitHouse podcast ·

2024/11/15

Canadian author Margaret Atwood is a living legend. Since her debut in 1961 with the poetry collection Double Persephone, she has published more than 70 books of poetry, short story collections, novels, children’s books, essay collections and even opera librettos, including the world-renowned novels The Handmaid’s Tale and the MaddAddam trilogy. Atwood has truly made her mark with her literary explorations of totalitarianism, patriarchal structures and environmental destruction, and is known for her

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1:02:22

Afrotopia: The Future of Africa with Felwine Sarr and...

LitHouse podcast ·

2024/10/20

How can Africa reach its full potential when Europe is still the blueprint to model oneself after? Not only has centuries of colonization and exploitation stripped the continent of opportunities, but the term “development” has all but become synonymous with following in Europe’s footsteps.This is the argument of Senegalese academicFelwine Sarrin his bookAfrotopia, which has had great influence in academic as well as public discourse. In it, he explores the possibility of a new Africa, with the help

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1:00:14

On Display: Rachel Cusk and Jessika Gedin

LitHouse podcast ·

2024/09/22

The author of twelve novels, along with a number of non-fiction books and plays,Rachel Cuskis one of our most prominent contemporary writers. Her brave, razor sharp and original voice has made her a favourite with readers and critics alike.Cusk is a truly innovative writer, pushing the boundaries of the form for each new publication. Already in 2008, when she published her brutally honest depiction of motherhoodA Life’s Work, she was miles ahead of contemporary feminist discourse. HerOutlinetrilogy

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56:06

The Unfree: Persecuted authors and censorship

LitHouse podcast ·

2024/08/11

Lately, much attention has been given to political attacks on prestigious writers. The attempted murder of Salman Rushdie and the deplatforming of Adania Shibli at the Frankfurt Book Fair sparked international outrage and raised awareness of ongoing threats to individual writers today.Far less attention is given to the fact that across the world, writers are prosecuted and jailed for their supposed dissidence to autocratic regimes. Turkey is among the world leaders in its number of jailed authors, a

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32:46

My African Reading List: Igoni Barrett

LitHouse podcast ·

2024/08/04

Igoni Barrett is a Nigerian writer of novels and short stories, especially well known for his award-winning novel 2015 Blackass. In 2014, he was named on the Hay Festival's Africa39 list of African writers under 40. Barrett is also part of the House of Literature's artistic council, advising in our project to promote African literature.This is Igoni Barrett's reading list:Abdulrazak Gurnah, Afterlives (Etterliv)Zoe Wicomb, You Can’t Get Lost in Cape Town (Ingen går seg vill i Cape Town)Toni

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59:51

A Tangled Family History: Simon Sebag Montefiore and...

LitHouse podcast ·

2024/07/28

What do the Mings, The Rameses’, the Romanovs, the Assads and the Clintons have in common? They are all family dynasties who, for better or worse, have influenced the history of the world.Historian and writerSimon Sebag Montefioreis a formidable storyteller, and his detailed and engaging works about historical figures such as Catherine the Great, Stalin and the Romanovs have earned him readers across the globe. In his most recent book,The World – A Family History of Humanity, his focus is no less

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45:26

Fighting mad to tell their story: Jean Rhys and...

LitHouse podcast ·

2024/07/21

Lecture by Denise DeCaires NarainThis lecture introduces two of the most prolific Caribbean women writers, Jean Rhys and Jamaica Kincaid, comparing their distinctive styles and thematic focus. Both writers have spoken of the significance of Charlotte Brontë’sJane Eyrein their writing lives and the lecture will explore how this plays out in their work, particularly in their respective engagements with anger and madness.For many feminist critics, Bertha Mason,Jane Eyre’s “mad woman in the attic,

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30:05

My African Reading List: Leila Aboulela

LitHouse podcast ·

2024/07/14

Leila Aboulela is a Sudanese writer, currently living in Scotland. She is the author of six award winning novels, including The Translator (1999), Bird Summons (2019) and River Spirit (2023), as well as a number of plays and short story collections. Aboulela was the first ever winner of the Caine Prize for Fiction, and an elected fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.This is Leila Aboulela’s reading list:Maaza Mengiste, The Shadow KingTayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the NorthThe Wedding of

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57:38

Lucy's Many Lives: Elizabeth Strout and Kjersti...

LitHouse podcast ·

2024/07/07

Elizabeth Stroutis one of the most distinct voices in contemporary American literature, and beloved by readers and critics alike. Her international breakthrough came with the novelOlive Kitteridge, which earned her the 2009 Pulitzer Prize, and which was later adapted into the award winning mini series of the same name. Since then, she has written four books in her Lucy Barton series;My Name Is Lucy Barton, Anything Is Possible, Oh, William!andLucy by the Sea.Her Lucy novels tell stories about

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41:55

Just Keep Going. Personal lecture by Elizabeth Strout

LitHouse podcast ·

2024/07/07

Elizabeth Stroutis one of the most distinct voices in contemporary American literature, and beloved by readers and critics alike. She started writing at an early age, but it would take her many years to finally get published. Back then, her mantra was “just keep going”.This year, Strout’s debut novel,Amy and Isabelle,is finally available in Norwegian (translated by Hilde Rød-Larsen). Her international breakthrough came with the novelOlive Kitteridge, which earned her the 2009 Pulitzer Prize, and

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1:13:20

Gender, Class and Loss: Glenn Bech, Andrew McMillan...

LitHouse podcast ·

2024/06/09

Writer and therapistGlenn Bechsparked a larger debate about class issues in Denmark with his autobiographical novelThe Fathership(forthcoming in Hazel Evans’ translation) and his manifestoJeg anerkænder ikke længere jeres autoritet(“I no longer recognize your authority”).The novelThe Fathershipdepicts a brutal childhood characterized by violence, betrayals and toxic masculinity, but that also has a tenderness and love for the families and working class community portrayed. The novel was praised by

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1:03:48

History In the Footnotes: Leila Aboulela, Maaza...

LitHouse podcast ·

2024/05/12

History is written by the victorious. But do we not also need to hear the story from the other side, from ordinary people caught in the middle of historical upheavals, forced to pick a side, or just try to survive? To those relegated to the footnotes in the history books, or not mentioned at all.This can be said to be the starting point for the novels of Sudanese-ScottishLeila Aboulelaand Ethiopian-AmericanMaaza Mengiste, both writing about historical events in their home countries.The backdrop in

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1:08:53

Hidden in the Details: Adania Shibli and Maaza Mengiste

LitHouse podcast ·

2024/03/31

The year is 1949, and the state of Israel is in its infancy. In the Negev desert, bordering Egypt, Israeli armed forces have set up camp with the mission to “cleanse it of any remaining Arabs” after the war the preceding year. They happen upon a Beduin family, a teenage girl among them, whom the soldiers rape, kill and bury in the desert.In present-day Ramallah, a young woman discovers these events through a small newspaper story. It catches her attention because the events took place exactly 25

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1:01:47

Censorship in East and West. Ian Buruma and Helge...

LitHouse podcast ·

2024/01/07

Freedom of expression is never absolute, but subject to laws and social conventions. Threats to freedom of thought and speech can come directly from authoritarian states or religious institutions. But they can also be self-inflicted, in the form of self-censorship. Both forms of censorship exist in democracies as well as dictatorship, and often overlap.Throughout history, authors in particular have been made the object of the limitations set by powerful institutions, be it by explicit decree or

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1:00:25

An Ode to Boyhood and Rage. Max Porter and Mattis Øybø

LitHouse podcast ·

2023/11/12

The year is 1995, and 16 year old Shy is sneaking out of the rural boarding school for “difficult” boys, named “Last Chance”. A long history of petty crime, expulsions and frustrated family members has brought him here, but now it is all soon over. With a spliff in his pocket and his Walkman loaded with his drum ‘n’ bass favourites, he’s ready. His rucksack is filled with rocks, and his head is swimming with memories of all his failures and times he fucked it up.Shyis a compositionally ambitious and

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52:43

A Chorus of Voices from Vietnam. Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai...

LitHouse podcast ·

2023/10/22

Do you understand why I’ve decided to tell you about our family? If our stories survive, we will not die, even when our bodies are no longer here on this earth.The Vietnam war was a watershed event in the Cold War as well as in the West’s understanding of itself. But what does the story look like from a Vietnamese perspective?In Vietnam, the war is still a traumatic experience. This is what writer Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai explores in her novel The Mountains Sing, in which we alternately follow the girl

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51:01

A Love without Bounds. Aleksandar Hemon and John Freeman

LitHouse podcast ·

2023/10/08

In some other world, in some other life, Pinto might’ve prayed in the morning, prayed his šaharit, prayed to be relieved of his abhorrent passion. But the only prayer that came to his mind now was to the Lord to let him keep Osman for the rest of time, for his voice to be the last thing he would hear before slipping into la gran eskuridad. Rafael Pinto is a young Jewish apothecary in Sarajevo, Bosnia, with big dreams and a penchant for opium. One summer day in 1914 he witnesses the assassination of

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49:58

Traitor or war hero? Ian Buruma and Marte Michelet

LitHouse podcast ·

2023/10/01

A masseuse who rises in the ranks to become Himmler’s confidant. A cross-dressing princess who spies for Japanese secret police in China. A Dutch Jew who personally hands over his friends to the Nazis and the gas chambers.The Collaborators is the story of three most unusual lives, all of whom served the other side during World War II. But it is also the story of their legacies and the ways in which the writing of history can become the falsification of history: The Dutchman and the spy were both

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124 results

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