Pankaj Mishra

Archive available for: Pankaj Mishra

• Video
  Age of Anger - met Pankaj Mishra en Ian Buruma

  Age of Anger - with Pankaj Mishra and Ian Buruma

  With: Ian Buruma, Pankaj Mishra, Sheila Sitalsing

  Anger as an incentive in politics seems contemporary but sure is not. Two internationally renowned writers - Pankaj Mishra, who recently published his brilliant new book Age of Anger, and Ian Buruma - recently named editor of acclaimed magazine The New York Review of Books - discussed the subject, moderated by journalist Sheila Sitalsing. English spoken.

  Pankaj Mishra is one of the most important writers and intellectuals of our age. He was born in India, lives and works in London and wrote several novels and studies. Age of Anger: A History of the Present is a concise and brilliantly written history of anger as political incentive. Surprising historical parallels show that our age is not unique: the early twentieth century was full of destructive urges, nationalism and terrorism; not a very comforting thought. It is an alarming book: a change of mentality seems necessary to safeguard our freedom, prosperity and stability.

  Ian Buruma is a Dutch-British sinologist, japanologist, journalist and writer. In 2017 he was named editor of the internationally acclaimed magazine The New York Review of Books. Since 1985, Buruma contributes to this magazine, as he publishes in among others The New York Times, The Guardian and the NRC Handelsblad newspaper. Buruma has written many books about Asian culture, democracy in crisis, Islamic fundamentalism, and the aftermath of World War II. He is a regular guest and panel host of the Winternachten festival.

  A programma curated by Judith Uyterlinde and Ilonka Reintjens (Writers Unlimited).
  Bookselling by Van Stockum Boekverkopers.
  In cooperation with Atlas Contact Publishers and OBA.

• Foto Audio
  Winternachten 2007

  Winternachten lecture

  With: Michaël Zeeman, Pankaj Mishra

  The Indian writer Pankaj Mishra opened the festival in the Nieuwe kerk with the first Winternachten lecture. He spoke about the influence of globalization on literature. The lecture in English and Dutch can be downloaded as an Acrobat Reader Document here.

  The growing presence of writers of non-western origin in Europe and America and the rapid process of economic globalization has fed the illusion that societies once were fully closed to each other now participate in an intensive cultural exchange. Pankaj Mishra throws light on the strange fate of literary globalism, which is rendered increasingly powerless in the face of cultural and political chauvinism in Europe and America.
  
  With Pankaj Mishra we placed a highly talented writer into the limelight. He broke through internationally with The Romantics, about an Indian student who is confronted with western customs and ways of thinking in the holy city of Benares. In 2004 the book of essays The Buddha in the World appeared, a quest for the meaning of the Buddha. Recently How to be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet and Beyond appeared. In it he writes about the changes under pressure of western modernity and about the paradoxes of globalization. Mishra studied commerce at the University of Allahabad and English literature at Nehru University in Delhi. Since the publication of his articles in The New York Review of Books he is a much wanted author of essay-like reviews and political articles. Pankaj Mishra divides his time between London, New Delhi, a village in the Himalayas and Wellesley College in America, where he teaches a number of weeks each year.

  Bas Heijne in NRC Handelsblad about Pankaj Mishra's Temptations of the West: "Mishra scrutinizes the strange and sordid phenomenon with a critical view worthy of his master, V.S. Naipaul. [...] He shows that the cosy chit-chat in the West on the violent nature of various religions, first and foremost of course Islam, conceals the true causes of that violence: religious extremism is ultimately always political."

  After the lecture Pankaj Mishra was interviewed by literary critic Michaël Zeeman. At the entrance the audience was given the English/Dutch copy of the lecture. The programme is English spoken.

  Stichting DOEN supports the Winternachten lecure 2007 because writers from 'the South' get an opportunity here to share their views. Not only with their colleagues at the festival but also with the general public. New insights are brought into being contributing to a social debate in the Netherlands.

• Foto Audio
  Winternachten 2007 – WINTERNACHT 2

  In search of the soul. Part 2: Religion

  Is the soul purely religious? The answer to that question and to the alleged divine sides of the soul were provided by the Indian writer Pankaj Mishra and the British writer Karen Armstrong. Pankaj Mishra wrote the eassay-like travel novel The Buddha in the World, about his quest for the Buddha and the meaning of Buddhism. Karen Armstrong is one of the greatest writers of religion. In the 1960s she spent seven years as a nun in a Roman Catholic education congregation convent. Her personal memories and views on the failure of the church, the nature of religion, loneliness and spiritual experiences were laid down in her book Through the Narrow Gate. Her book A History of God, a cultural history of one thousand years of Christianity, Judaism and Islam were a worldwide bestseller. In it she wrote: 'The secularization which we are currently witnessing is a totally new experiment which has never occurred in the history of man before.' English spoken.