{"id":2104,"date":"2018-10-26T15:50:16","date_gmt":"2018-10-26T14:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/english-news\/?p=2104"},"modified":"2019-01-23T13:28:26","modified_gmt":"2019-01-23T13:28:26","slug":"on-abdulrazak-gurnah-belonging-colonialism-arrival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/english-news\/2018\/10\/26\/on-abdulrazak-gurnah-belonging-colonialism-arrival\/","title":{"rendered":"On Abdulrazak Gurnah: Belonging, Colonialism, Arrival"},"content":{"rendered":"

This special event is dedicated to engaging the work of Abdulrazak Gurnah: one of the most important contemporary postcolonial novelists writing in Britain today. It presents a unique opportunity to examine Gurnah\u2019s oeuvre as well as to discuss it with him in person. The event comprises of a keynote lecture by Giles Foden on Gurnah\u2019s novelistic project and its context, and an interview with Gurnah by Razia Iqbal about his work and life in Britain and Zanzibar.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

ABDULRAZAK GURNAH<\/strong> was born in 1948 on the island of Zanzibar off the coast of East Africa. He came to Britain as a student in 1968 and has taught for many years in the School of English at the University of Kent, retiring as a Professor of English and Postcolonial Literatures in 2017. His novels grapple with questions of belonging, colonialism, displacement, memory, and migration. His first three novels, Memory of Departure<\/em>\u00a0(1987), Pilgrims Way<\/em> (1988) and Dottie<\/em> (1990), document the immigrant experience in contemporary Britain from different perspectives. His fourth novel, Paradise<\/em> (1994), is set in colonial East Africa during the First World War and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction. Admiring Silence<\/em> (1996) tells the story of a young man who leaves Zanzibar and emigrates to England where he marries and becomes a teacher. A return visit to his native country 20 years later profoundly affects his attitude towards both himself and his marriage. By the Sea<\/em> (2001), is narrated by Saleh Omar, an elderly asylum-seeker living in an English seaside town. His latest novels are Desertion<\/em> (2005), shortlisted for a 2006 Commonwealth Writers Prize, The Last Gift<\/em> (2011), and Gravel Heart<\/em> (2018). He has edited two volumes of Essays on African Writing<\/em>, has published articles on a number of contemporary postcolonial writers, including Naipaul, Rushdie and Zo\u00eb Wicomb, and has also edited The Cambridge Companion to Salman Rushdie <\/em>(2007).<\/em><\/p>\n

GILES FODEN<\/strong> is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. After growing up in Africa, in 1993 he became assistant editor of the Times Literary Supplement<\/em>. Between 1996 and 2006 he worked for the Guardian<\/em>, during which period he published The Last King of Scotland<\/em>, which won the 1998 Whitbread First Novel Award and was released as an Oscar-winning film in 2006. He is the author of three other novels and a work of narrative non-fiction. He was one of the judges of the MAN Booker Prize in 2007 and of the IMPAC Prize in 2014. His writing has appeared in the New York Times<\/em>, Granta<\/em> and Esquire<\/em>, among other publications.<\/p>\n

RAZIA IQBAL <\/strong>is a presenter for BBC News: she is one of the main hosts of Newshour<\/em>, the flagship news and current affairs programme on BBC World Service radio. She also regularly presents The World Tonight<\/em> on the BBC’s national network, Radio 4. And the history programme, Witness<\/em>, on the BBC news channel and BBC World TV. She was the BBC’s arts correspondent for a decade. And has worked as a political reporter, and as a foreign correspondent in Pakistan and Sri Lanka. She has worked for the BBC for nearly three decades. Born in Uganda, Kampala she came to London as a child.<\/p>\n

17:00, Thursday 22nd November 2018<\/strong><\/h6>\n
Grimond LT2<\/strong><\/h6>\n

 <\/p>\n

The event is part of the School of English\u2019s Postcolonial Seminar Series, and will be followed by a drinks reception in Grimond Foyer.\u00a0 All welcome.<\/p>\n

Further information<\/strong>:<\/h6>\n
01227-827896<\/em><\/h6>\n
englishevents@kent.ac.uk<\/em><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This special event is dedicated to engaging the work of Abdulrazak Gurnah: one of the most important contemporary postcolonial novelists writing in Britain today. It … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53063,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[143219,178752,124],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/english-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2104"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/english-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/english-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/english-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53063"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/english-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2104"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/english-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2184,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/english-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2104\/revisions\/2184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/english-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/english-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/english-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}