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 journalist and essayist. The author of many works, she has received particular acclaim for Frère Tariq (2004), La Tentation obscurantiste (2005), awarded the prix Jean-Zay and the 2006 Prix du livre politique, La dernière utopie (2009), Quand la gauche a du courage (2012), Éloge du blasphème (2015) and Génie de la laïcité (2016). Her first film, Soeurs d’armes, was released in 2019.
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.
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