Writing and Political Oppression
In Our Time
BBC
4.6 • 9.9K Ratings
🗓️ 8 April 1999
⏱️ 28 minutes
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Summary
Melvyn Bragg examines how two writers’ work have been shaped by political oppression and explores whether writers have a political role in modern society. The connection between writers and politics has its roots in classical times, but in the 20th century the writer has been called on as the witness with increasing frequency and intensity. And many times the price of articulation has been severe. In the century in which saw the execution of writers such as Ken Saro Wiwa in Nigeria in 1995, and a fatwa imposed on Salman Rushdie, Melvyn Bragg talks to two writers who between them experienced exile, censorship and the manipulation of authoritarian states - Ariel Dorfman from South America and Nadine Gordimer, the Nobel Prize winner from South Africa, to discuss the writing of fiction and political oppression. What, if any, is the writer’s political role in our world today?With Nadine Gordimer, Nobel Prize-winning South African novelist; Ariel Dorfman, South American journalist, scholar and author of Death and the Maiden.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Thanks for downloading the in our time podcast for more details about in our time and for our terms of use |
| 0:05.4 | Please go to bbc.co.uk forward slash radio for I hope you enjoy the program |
| 0:12.0 | Hello in this century in which we've seen the execution of writers such as Ken Salowiwa in Nigeria in |
| 0:17.8 | 1995 and a fatwa in person Salman Rushdie |
| 0:20.1 | We turned to two writers of the century Nadine Gordimer and Ariel Dorfman to discuss the writing of fiction and political oppression |
| 0:27.0 | What if any is the right as political role in our world today? |
| 0:31.1 | Nadine Gordimer is the Nobel Prize-winning South African novelist with three novels banned by the South African government |
| 0:37.1 | Her writings have charted the changes in South Africa's social climate for nearly half a century with passion, commitment and precision |
| 0:43.7 | With her last two novels to accompany and the house garden out in paperback |
| 0:47.7 | She has written about a society after apartheid |
| 0:51.4 | Although a paed up member of the ANC she denies being a political writer |
| 0:55.5 | The South American author journalist that's called Ariel Dorfman is best known in this country for his play |
| 1:00.1 | Death and the Maiden which is later turned into a film by Roman Polanski |
| 1:04.1 | The subject of his work is often a terror of dictatorship political oppression and the despair of exile |
| 1:09.7 | He was up until 1973 in the Marxist government of President Salvador Iende in Chile |
| 1:14.6 | But was exiled following the coup by General Pinochet. He lives in America |
| 1:18.6 | His latest novel the Nanny and the iceberg has just been published |
| 1:22.2 | Ariel Dorfman, would you say that your writing has been shaped by not just by politics, but by political oppression? |
| 1:30.3 | Of course it has been because I haven't chosen to do this and I haven't chosen to be |
| 1:35.6 | Exiled several times before General Pinochet. I was exiled over and over again for different reasons as as a baby as an |
| 1:42.1 | Lesson, etc |
| 1:43.6 | So I didn't choose to have the men in the shadows as I call them |
... |
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