Women In Exile: IFS Biennial Confab To Interrogate Gender Dynamics

Posted by Eric Ojo Latest Headlines, U.S./Canada Thursday, September 1st, 2022

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The upcoming tenth biennial conference of the International Feuchtwanger Society (IFS) will essentially interrogate the broad range of issues underpinning gender dynamics in exile as it relates to women.

This was disclosed in a statement published on the websites of the Libraries of the University of Southern California (USC) and Villa Aurora and Thomas Mann House.

Villa Aurora celebrates the significant contribution German and European artists and intellectuals of the 1930s and 40s had on Southern California, and offer a variety of arts and cultural programs, including public lectures, concerts, screenings, and performance, carrying this contribution into the 21st century

The organization maintains and cultivates the historic landmark home of exiled German-Jewish writer Lion Feuchtwanger and his wife Marta as a residence for an international body of artists.

Since 1995, Villa Aurora has served as an artists’ retreat offering residency fellowships to writers, filmmakers, visual artists and composers. While still owned by the Berlin-based non-profit, the entire operation is funded by the German Federal Foreign Office and the Federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media.

Moreover, its fellows and the Friends of the Villa Aurora have made it an important gathering place for people in and outside of Los Angeles for conversations and cultural life.

This year’s edition of the event with the theme, “Women In Exile: Feuchtwanger and Gender Dynamics in Exile and in Exile Literature”, is jointly organized by the USC Libraries and the IFS, in collaboration with and support of the USC Max Kade Institute, Villa Aurora Thomas Mann House, Austrian Consulate General Los Angeles, German Consulate General Los Angeles, and California State University German Program and German Studies Student Association.

The two-day event which is slated for 16 and 17 of September, will explore Feuchtwanger and the women in his novels, his circle, and his life. The conference will also take a deeper look into the artistic and socioeconomic relationships of these women rather than review their biographies.

The statement also noted that the conference will examine the role women play in Feuchtwanger’s novels and plays and how are they portrayed.

“How are women portrayed in exile literature and more broadly, how is exile literature gendered? How do female writers characterize women in their creative works?

In what way does gender impact the women living in exile?”, it added.

On Friday September 16, the day first of the conference will be held at the USC’s Doheny Memorial Library. Saturday’s events will take place at Villa Aurora in Pacific Palisades, the former residence of Marta and Lion Feuchtwanger.

In a related development, a lecture and reception in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Feuchtwanger Memorial Library and of Marta Feuchtwanger’s achievements in preserving the legacy of the German-speaking exiles in Los Angeles, is scheduled to hold on Thursday September 15.

The event, which will held outdoors in the Nazarian Pavilion behind Doheny Library, is generously sponsored by the German Consulate General, Los Angeles.