LitHouse podcast

The House of Literature in Oslo - Litteraturhuset
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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.

  1. 15 may

    Andrey Kurkov: Ukraine — Memories for the future

    The Wergeland Lecture 2026 Andrey Kurkov is one of Ukraine’s most central cultural and literary ambassadors. With titles such as Death and the Penguin and Grey Bees, he has gained readers across the world. But when Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022, he was no longer able to write fiction. Instead, he has travelled widely to talk about the reality and brutality of the war, writing essays and a journal from his daily life in the war. Already in 2022, he published Diary Of An Invasion. Growing up during the Soviet era, Kurkov discovered writers such as George Orwell and Aleksandr Solzjenitsyn through illegal copies. He has experienced first hand what a society without freedom of speech really entails, as well as the role of language and culture in establishing a national identity. Kurkov himself writes in Russian, Ukrainian and English. Part of what Putin is out do destroy is Ukraina as an independent nation, with a culture and a language of its own. In what ways is Putin appropriating history and culture in his narrative about the invasion? And how has the war – ironically – fortified both Ukraine’s and the rest of the world’s view of Ukrainian language and culture? The Wergeland lecture is an annual event. Each year, The House of Literature will invite an international voice who embodies Henrik Wergeland’s spirit in their work and writings. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  2. 4 may

    Feminism in Ukrainian: Oksana Zabuzhko and Lotta Elstad

    Oksana Zabuzhko is one of the central writers of Ukraine’s post-Soviet generation. In 1996, she caused great controversy with her debut novel, Field Work in Ukrainian Sex, in which she challenged the current view won women’s role in society and in the relationship, where she was expected to be subordinate to the man. The novel has become a work of reference for Eastern European feminism, and with its exploration of female experience, language and power, it has been compared to writers such as Jamaica Kincaid and Angela Carter. The novel portrays the destructive relationship between the writer Oksana and the sculptor Mykola, as well as the many challenges Oksana faces as a young female, Ukrainian poet. In an immediate and colloquial language, partly addressed to the reader, partly the narrator’s own stream of conciousness, Zabuzhko navigates what it means to be Ukrainian and what it means to be a woman, at a moment in time when both identities were being negotiated. Zabuzhko has published a number of award winning novels, essay collections and books of poetry, including The Museum of Abandoned Secrets and The Longest Journey. She has a PhD in philosophy, and she has taught Ukrainian literature at Harvard and the University of Pittsburgh. Author and historian Lotta Elstad has also explored history and female experience in novels such as Jeg nekter å tenke [«I refuse to think»] and the critically acclaimed Xiania series. She joined Zabuzhko for a conversation about sex, love and the view of women in Ukraine. The conversation was held in English. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  3. 27 abr

    The Tsar Dynasty and the Mad Monk: Anthony Beevor and Erika Fatland

    Few historians can match the position of British Anthony Beevor. With his 13 historical book son recent European history, he has become one of the most respected and read writers of history. Especially his books about the Second World War, including Stalingrad and The Second World War have become modern classics. In his latest book, Beevor delves into the final days of one of history’s largest empire, the Russian Romanov dynasty. Rasputin and the Downfall of the Romanovs provides a portrait of the «mad monk» Rasputin, and explores how one man seemingly toppled an entire dynasty. Through detailed portraits of the tsar couple, their advisors and the growing revolutionary hunger of the masses, Beevor shows how a combination of political incompetence, religious fanatism and social unrest brought about the catastrophic fall of the dynasty. The Norwegian author Erika Fatland has travelled all across the former Russian empire. In award winning books like Sovietistan and The Border – A Journey Around Russia, she shows how history affects the region today. She joined Beevor for a conversation about Rasputin, the Romanovs and the fall of an empire. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  4. 13 abr

    A Country Falling Apart: Siri Hustvedt and Karin Haugen

    No, reading novels is not a solution to our political miseries. For that organization, active resistance, and harder rhetoric is required. But we need stories. Author Siri Hustvedt said these words during a lecture at the House of Literature in 2017, in Donald Trump’s first term as president. Hustvedt is one of those writers who turns to literature as well as organized resistance faced with a harsh political reality. Together with her late husband, the author Paul Auster, she founded Writers Against Trump (today Writers For Democratic Action), a coalition that organizes town hall meetings, protests and political theatre. Hustvedt writes about the beginning of the movement in her latest book, Ghost Stories: A Memoir. Faced with Trump’s curbing of rights, and ICE’s conduct in a number of American cities, Hustvedt has been a staunch critic. Raised in Minnesota by Norwegian parents, she soon learned of her mother’s resistance to the Nazi occupation of Norway during the second world war. In a much-shared Facebook post, Hustvedt points to a parallel between the Norwegians’ resistance and today’s protests in the US: «the moral choice between accepting fascism and opposing it is the same,» she writes. What is the current situation in the US like for someone like Hustvedt, seeing ICE patrol her hometown? How are Americans responding to the continuous dismantling of their democracy and constitutional state? What is the role of the writer in critical times, and how may literature confront the material and interpersonal challenges that we are currently facing? Siri Hustvedt is among the most central writers and thinkers in the US. She has written a number of critically acclaimed novels and essay collections, including The Summer without Men, The Blazing World, The Shaking Woman or A History of My Nerves, and A Woman Looking at Men Looking at Women. At the House of Literature, she was joined by writer and journalist Karin Haugen for a conversation about a US unraveling, and about the resistance in art and community. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  5. 13 abr

    A Love Story: Siri Hustvedt and Marte Spurkland

    After 43 years together, author Siri Hustvedt loses her husband, the author Paul Auster, to an aggressive form of cancer. Now there is only Siri left, in a time in which memories, smells and words from the time before seep in. Eventually, she starts writing; about Auster's illness and his last days, about their early days together and their all-consuming love, about decades of a shared life filled with joy and laughter, with books and stories, worries and sorrow. Hustvedt's writing eventually becomes the book Ghost Stories: A Memoir. Ghost Stories is a personal account of the life of a popular and critically acclaimed author-couple, as well as an exploration of how grief and loss affect us, physiologically and mentally, in dialogue with philosophy, literary history and neuroscience. The grief from losing her husband mingles with the grief and anger over what kind of country the United States is becoming, what is lost, and what is worth fighting for. Siri Hustvedt is among the most central writers and thinkers in the US. She has written a number of critically acclaimed novels and essay collections, including The Summer without Men, The Blazing World, The Shaking Woman or A History of My Nerves, and A Woman Looking at Men Looking at Women. Writer and journalist Marte Spurkland has also written a personal account of losing her father to cancer, in the critically acclaimed Pappas runer («Dad’s Runes»). She met Hustvedt for a conversation about grief, memory and shared life. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  6. 2 mar

    A Women's History. Annabelle Hirsch and Susanne Kaluza

    In A History of Women in 101 Objects, author Annabelle Hirsch shows us how the things around us aren’t just objects, but testimonies to a common cultural history and set of values. Hirsch shows how something as simple as a hair clip can betray power structures and how kitchen appliances have defined women’s role in society. With a playful tone and a political sharpness, A History of Women is a manifesto for women’s common history that also defies general perceptions of history’s progress and universal improvements. Annabelle Hirsch is a German-French journalist, author and translator. A History of Women is her first book and has garnered wide recognition since its publication in German in 2022. Now, she visits the House of Literature for a lecture on reading cultural histories out of the objects that surrounds us, where everyday objects can be symbols of liberation as well as subjection. After the lecture, there will be a short conversation led by author, women’s rights advocate and Director of the House of Literature, Susanne Kaluza. Kaluza has written two additional chapters for A History’s Norwegian publication and will meet Hirsch on stage for a short conversation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  7. 23 feb

    A Secret Family History: Lea Ypi

    Albanian Lea Ypi has a talent for combining the personal and the political in history, exploring how we are all shaped by the societies and ideologies surrounding us. In her memoir Free. A Child and a Country at the End of History, she skillfully portrays her own childhood during the socialist regime of Enver Hoxha in the latter half of the 20th century, followed by the state’s collapse and civil war. Ordinary humans in the midst of history is also the focus in her new book, Indignity: A Life Reimagined. An unknown photopgrah of her grandmother honeymooning in Mussolini’s Italy pops up on social media, making Ypi question everything she thought she knew about her family. Was her grandmother a Nazi collaborator? Or perhaps a Communist spy? This is the beginning of a thorough examination of her grandmothers life, one that takes Ypi back to the Ottoman empire, to Greece and then Albania through alternating regimes and occupants. Lea Ypi is a professor of political theory and philosophy at the London School of Economics. Her book Free was warmly received by both critics and readers, and is so far translated into 30 languages. Writer and journalist Simen Ekern has published several books about European and Italian politics and history. He joins Ypi for a conversation about ordinary humans in the midst of history. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  8. 12 ene

    Reading the Vikings. Eleanor Barraclough and Tore Skeie

    The history of the Vikings is usually told from the top down, through powerful characters such as chiefs, commanders and royalty, with raids, looting and war at the centre of the narrative. But what about all the others? What was it like to live a normal life as farmer, a merchant, wife or child? This is the central question in a recent book by British Eleanor Barraclough, Embers of the Hands. Taking her starting point from archaeological finds in order to tell the story of ordinary people’s lives in the Viking Age, she reveals how, beneath the surface, we find stories equally dramatic to the great heroic tales of those on the top. On stage, she will be joined by her Norwegian colleague Tore Skeie. With books such as his award winning The Wolf Age: The Vikings, the Anglo-Saxons, and the battle for the North Sea Empire, Skeie depicts a both vivid and brutal Viking Age rife with decisive events. Skeie’s approach to history is mainly through the upper class, such as through Saint Olaf or the nobleman Alv Erlingsson. Skeie and Barraclough write the history of the Viking Age from two different perspectives; from the bottom up and from the top down. What can these two ways of reading history learn from each other? The conversation was moderated by Carline Tromp, writer, critic and old norse philologist. The event was part of the Festival of Non-Fiction 2025. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Información

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.

Ficha técnica

  • Creado por
    The House of Literature in Oslo - Litteraturhuset
  • Años en activo
    2016 - 2026
  • Episodios
    138
  • Clasificación
    Apto
  • Derechos de autor
    © 275062
  • Sitio web del podcast
    LitHouse podcast

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