Rachel Cusk: Parade - Opening reading of the 39th Freiburg Literature Talk

Welcome: Ulrich von Kirchbach, First Mayor of the City of Freiburg

Since her "Outline" trilogy and the memoirs "Lebenswerk" and "Danach", Rachel Cusk has been internationally acclaimed for her brilliant analyses of the geometry of human relationships and our late-modern attitude to life. Born in Canada in 1967 and raised in the USA and Great Britain, the Guggenheim Fellow now lives in Paris. Her most recent work "Parade" (Suhrkamp, 2024, translated from the English by Eva Bonné) explores the interweaving of art and life: Suddenly G is painting upside down. His own wife, for example. He makes her ugly in the process. The paintings become a huge success. In Paris, a woman is attacked on the street by a stranger. The attacker turns to look at her victim like an artist at her canvas.

Rachel Cusk writes about violence, femininity, identity, parenthood and reflects the family history(ies) of the narrating "we" in episodes about artists. In doing so, she deliberately breaks every genre norm and sets a "milestone in English-language literature of the 21st century" (The Observer). The author talks to her colleague Annette Pehnt about formal daring and the transformative power of art.
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Photo: © Suhrkamp Verlag

Sponsors: Cultural Office of the City of Freiburg, Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts Baden-Württemberg, Sparkasse Freiburg-Nördlicher Breisgau, Guzzoni-Federer-Stiftung, Schweizer Kulturstiftung Pro Helvetia and Lyrikempfehlungen für Kinder, kindly supported by jos fritz bookshop and Park Hotel Post

Date: 6.11.2025, 19:30
Venue: Historical merchants' hall, Münsterplatz 24
Admission: 16/8 euros

Literature talk
Out of house