Have cultural conflicts invaded our private lives and private minds? Should we be concerned by the cult of identity? Does adherence to origins endanger free democratic exchange? In polemic treatise Génération Offensée, author Caroline Fourest outlines the biggest threat currently facing the intellectual left: itself. From canceling Dostoevsky to firing professors at will, Fourest uncovers a self-cannibalizing instinct at the heart of leftism which is eating the movement from the inside. This fight against offense has finally arrived in France, she argues, and brought with it its entourage cultural police turned thought police. Without any desire to return to the way things were before, Fourest proposes a simultaneously feminist, antiracist, and universalist path forward which allows for a distinction between cultural plunder and cultural homage. 

About the speaker:

Caroline Fourest is a filmmaker, director, and journalist. She was the co-founder of the feminist, anti-racist and secularist journal ProChoix and taught at Sciences-Po Paris on themes of multiculturalism and universalism. Fourest has been columnist for Le Monde, France Culture, and Marianne, directed feminist film Sisters in Arms (2019), and now directs Franc-Tireur, a weekly newspaper against polarization and extremism.

Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (Fourest will appear in the Reading Room), the Library will stream the conversation on Zoom for a live viewing experience. Both in-person and online attendees will be able to pose questions.

This event requires advance registration.

Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes.