Belonging, “Heimat” and new national narratives of Germany and Britain: a conversation with Mithu Sanyal and Vinay Patel

How do we think about the nation as home in times of ethno-nationalist movements? What role does art play in shaping alternative visions of belonging? How can writers champion solidarity with and between differently marginalised groups in their texts’ content and production?

Join us at King’s College London to explore these questions together with German author, journalist and scholar Mithu Sanyal and British playwright and screenwriter Vinay Patel.

As key contributors to the much-discussed essay collections Eure Heimat ist unser Albtraum (Your Home is Our Nightmare) and The Good Immigrant, both Mithu and Vinay have taken part in collective interventions in public discourses on national identity while also winning international acclaim for their individual works. Mithu’s prize-winning nonfiction is now being published in English at Verso (Rape: From Lucretia to #MeToo) and Vinay’s writing has most recently reached a global audience through the BBC’s Doctor Who.

They will discuss the motivations behind their work, correspondences between the German and British contexts and their ideas of home in times of AfD and Brexit in conversation with Leila Essa (German and Comparative Literature at King’s College London).

This event is free and open to all, but booking is required.