Dreams of Rivers and Seas

LSE Literary Weekend/ Anthropology panel discussion

A reading from Tim Parks’ latest novel Dreams of Rivers and Seas followed by a discussion on the anthropological themes explored within it.

Catherine Allerton is a specialist in the anthropology of Southeast Asia, particularly Eastern Indonesia, and has conducted fieldwork in rural Manggarai, in the west of the island of Flores. Her primary theoretical interest is in the significance of place and landscape, particularly with regard to processes of kinship and social change. She is currently completing a book manuscript on this research, entitled Potent Landscapes: Place, Kinship and Agency in Eastern Indonesia.

Laura Bear is a specialist on India and ethnographies of the state, labour, and memory. She has conducted fieldwork in a railway company town, Kharagpur, in India particularly among Anglo-Indian workers and their families. Further theoretical interests in globalisation and technology, her current research is on international call centre workers in Calcutta.

David Lan was appointed artistic director of the Young Vic in 2000 where he has established the Genesis Directors Project, the Jerwood Directors Award and the Young Vic Award. He won an Olivier Award for the 2004 Young Vic season. He led the £12.5 million rebuild of the Young Vic theatre and the two year Walkabout season while the theatre was closed. His productions at the Young Vic include Julius Caesar (2000), A Raisin in the Sun (2001, revival and tour 2005), Doctor Faustus (2002), The Daughter-in-Law (2002) and The Skin of Our Teeth (2004). He directed As You Like It at Wyndhams (2005) as part of Walkabout.

Tim Parks grew up in London and studied at Cambridge and Harvard. In 1981 he moved to Italy where he lives near Verona with his wife and three children. He has written eleven novels including Europa (shortlisted for the Booker Prize), Destiny and Judge Savage (longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2000 and 2003), as well as, most recently, Dreams of Rivers and Seas. In addition to this he has written three non-fictional accounts of life in northern Italy, a collection of 'narrative' essays, and a history of the Medici bank in 15th century Florence. His many translations from the Italian include works by Moravia, Tabucchi, Calvino and Calasso. He lectures on literary translation in Milan and has published a book, Translating Style, which analyses Italian translations of the English modernists, plus two collections of essays Hell and Back and The Fighter that range from Dante to Leopardi, Borges to Rushdie, Machiavelli to Garibaldi.

This is part of the LSE Space for Thought Literary Weekend, the LSE's first ever Literary Festival, celebrating the completion of the New Academic Building.

Register to tell a friend about this lecture.

Comments

If you would like to comment about this lecture, please register here.

©2003-2006 Niminim Limited. Created by

Any ad revenue is entirely reinvested into the Lecture List's operating fund