Yasar Kemal and Gunter Grassl

TODAY’S ZAMAN || APRIL 2010

Günter Grass and Yasar Kemal, two living legends of literature, took part in a special panel discussion this week in Istanbul.

The event marked the final stop of the Goethe Institut’s long-running project “European Literature Goes to Turkey-Turkish Literature Goes to Europe,” which has been running since March 2009, bringing together an international audience on Thursday afternoon at the Muhsin Ertugrul Theater.

The project has offered literature buffs in 24 Turkish provinces a chance to explore contemporary literature from Europe with panel discussions, book readings and even musical performances, introducing the work of around 50 authors from eight European Union countries. The program offered audiences in many cities an opportunity to share their views and engage in debates with European authors and artists. And before the project travels to Europe, Kemal and Grass shared their views on literature and its effects on the transformation of society with a packed audience at the theater, in a discussion moderated by Osman Okkan.

The meeting brought forward two common points of the two authors: first, the attitudes of both authors to their societies, and second, their opposition to dominant ideas. The two authors have other things in common, too. Both Grass — born in Danzig, Poland — and Kemal had their roots in minority groups and had a minority language as their mother tongue, which Grass confirmed in his speech. “We’re both people from outside the center, from the country, and we turned all our experience of the country into literature because we saw these countries as the center of the world.” >>READ MORE

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