This House is Haunted

A literary conversation with Latin American authors who brilliantly bring their sometimes nightmarish political reality to life.

Information

Date and time Friday 17 June 2022 22:30 tot 23:30 uur
Location Paard Grote zaal
Price 29,50
15,- (CJP, Students, Ooievaarspas)

Magnificent literary nightmares from Latin America - with Pola Oloixarac, Agustina Bazterrica, Yentl van Stokkum & Elfie Tromp (moderator)

Dreamy jungle villages, the mysterious mazes of Borges and the tender poetry of Pablo Neruda - that is how we know "traditional" Latin-American literature. But in recent years a new generation of (primarily) female writers has emerged that requires a different, darker imagery to describe its (political) realities. In the new, encroaching magic realism of these authors, you won't find dreamy mazes but ghosts, voodoo, blood and horror. Gothic and horror elements are used by these writeres to strengthen stories and drag readers into the depths. What does this genre offer writers, and how does it affect readers?

During this event, we talked to writers who bring nightmares to life in brilliant, literary ways. Argentinian authors Pola Oloixarac and Agustina Bazterrica are invited. Oloixarac's work sketches a reality that doesn't quite make sense with subtle, eerie imagery, and in her book Tender Is the Flesh, Bazterrica depicts a blood-curdling world in which cannibalism has become the norm. Writer and poet Yentl van Stokkum wrote a haunted summer poem especially for this event and performed it live. Author and enthusiastic horror fan Elfie Tromp moderated the event. Walid Ben Selim, half of the musical duo N3rdistan, was also there: he and Pola Oloixarac brought a musical performance.

English spoken.

Not familiar with the work of these two Argentinian literary sharpshooters? Some reading tips for those who want to familiarize themselves:

  • Mona by Pola Oloixarac
  • Savage Theories by Pola Oloixarac
  • Dark Constellations by Pola Oloixarac
  • Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

Line-up

Agustina Bazterrica

(Argentina, 1974) won the important Premio Clarín Novela in 2017 for her second novel, Cadáver Exquisito (translated into English as Tender Is the Flesh). The jury unanimously chose her book from 494 submitted manuscripts. It's a dystopian novel about Marcos Tejo, manager of a large meat-processing plant at a time when animal flesh is unfit for consumption because of a virus. He's one of few people who can recall that meat once came from cows, pigs and poultry. Marcos grieves for his dead son and the departure of his wife, cares for his sick father and is almost on a war footing with his sister. The day comes when he receives a living gift from a meat supplier. Tender Is the Flesh is about grief and dehumanization and offers surprisingly credible and gruesome solutions to pressing global problems. Bazterrica's novel paints a mercilessly critical and chilling picture of a morally bankrupt society.


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Walid Ben Selim

(Casablanca, 1984), is a humanist singer and composer in multiple forms, in love with poetry to which he dedicates his artistic career. He was raised by his mother, a lawyer committed to social causes and left-wing activist, who was both his reference and his support in his passion for music and who enrolled him at the age of 6 at the Conservatory of Casablanca. He left Morocco in 2002, after having been one of the founders of the "Nayda" movement, to join France where he continues his studies and his passion. Walid Ben Salim is also the lead singer/rapper of hiphop band N3rdistan, building bridges between the Arabic world and the West.
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Pola Oloixarac

(Argentina, 1977) writes fiction and essays and is a translator and blogger. She studied philosophy at the university in Buenos Aires and was selected in 2010 as one of the best young Spanish-language authors by Granta magazine. Her books often tackle themes such as fear and violence, war, sex, eroticism, drug use and philosophy. Her debut, Las teorías salvajes (2008; English translation Savage Theories), is an extreme and satirical portrait of the Buenos Aires university bubble in which complex personalities wrangle with a mess of visionary theories, seeking their place in the fragmented digital world. Las constelaciones oscuras (Dark Constellations, 2015) is a novel that races from the era of 19th-century science to an ultra-surveilled near future. In Mona (2019), success takes a dark turn for a young Latin American woman during a literary festival in Sweden. The novel employs gothic elements to deal with sexuality, sensuality and violence against women, with dead animals and mysterious men in black making appearances.





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Yentl van Stokkum

(1991) used to be a high-school art teacher; now she writes theatre scripts, audio plays, poetry and essays. In 2017 she graduated in Writing for Performance from the Utrecht Art Academy, after which she was selected for the Slow Writing Lab talent-development program of the Dutch Literature Foundation. She edits and writes for Dutch literary publications and is developing a project with the De Nieuwe Oost | Wintertuin production company. Van Stokkum has appeared at various Dutch festivals. She also contributed to the 2018 anthology NYX: berichten uit de nacht (NYX: Dispatches from the night) and was nominated for the 2019 BNG Bank Theatre Prize for her written performance Chimo zei Lila (Lila said Chimo). Van Stokkum's debut collection Ik zeg Emily (I Say Emily), about the life and work of the English writer Emily Brontë, was published in 2021; it straddles poetry, narrative prose and seance. In the same year she received the C.C.S. Crone stipend.


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Elfie Tromp

(Netherlands, 1985) is a writer, presenter and performer. Following on her debut novel Goeroe (Guru, 2013), Underdog (2016) was nominated for the BNG Literature Prize and the Dioraphte Literature Prize. Her poetry debut Victorieverdriet (Victory Sadness) was published in 2017. Her most recent novel Pieta (2021) is a compelling mosaic-style story about a city under pressure. Tromp has written for various Dutch magazines and newspapers. She can also be found on stage, appearing in her own productions, including Monster Love Play and the musical-theatre horror show Niet vandaag Satan (maar wel vanavond) (Not Today, Satan, but Tonight Is Okay). On Instagram, she presents the weekly Dichter in Drag (Poet in Drag) show, where poetry and glitter, poets and drag queens meet for a half hour of reading and make-up.
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