Michel Mallet | Writing for the Future
Writing for the Future: Exile, Resistance, and the Hope for Utopia in Klaus Mann's Narratives
Northrop Frye Centre (VC102)
91 Charles St West Toronto, ON M5S1K5
The NFC is pleased to invite you to a talk by Michel Mallet from the Université de Moncton.
About the talk...
A prolific writer, Klaus Mann (1906-1949) was confronted from an early age with the challenges posed by his father's notoriety, drug addiction and his homosexuality, in addition to the socio-political upheavals of his time. Imbued with these personal and historical challenges, his work embodies aesthetic curiosity, a rejection of societal norms and taboos, and a forward-looking optimism.
An avowed idealist, Mann's utopian vision of a collective, humanistic and transnational European awakening contrasts sharply with the disheartening reality he observed within his own 'Nachkriegsgeneration'. Identifying himself as a member of a lost generation, Mann nevertheless believed in the potential of future generations to defend utopian ideals. In so doing, he drew inspiration from Ernst Bloch's concept of "concrete utopia" as an ideological counterpoint to the historical events of his time. Forced into exile and fleeing Nazi Germany in 1933, Mann became an important figure in the Other Germany, taking an active part in the anti-fascist struggle abroad, including in Roosevelt's America. Seeing America as a protector of democratic values and freedom, he regarded it as a beacon of hope and a 'utopian' model from which his generation and future generations in Germany and Europe should draw inspiration in their struggle against fascism.
Examining the intersecting themes of exile, anti-fascist resistance, and the pursuit of utopia in his literary output, this talk aims to shed new light on Mann's legacy, thereby providing a more comprehensive portrait of this politically engaged author, and of the pan-European humanist spirit that permeates his essays and works of fiction.
About the speaker...
Michel Mallet is Associate Professor of German at the Université de Moncton, in New Brunswick, Canada. He is currently Bithell Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Languages, Cultures & Societies - School of Advanced Study at the University of London, UK (2023–2024), and Visiting Fellow at the Northrop Frye Centre (Winter 2024). Particularly interested in the themes of Heimat (homeland), exile, and nostalgia, his research projects explore Herta Müller’s oeuvre, as well as extending to other twentieth- and twenty-first-century German-language authors of immigration and exile, such as Klaus Mann and Saša Stanišić, who address such themes in their works.