ISSN 1993-8616
2008 - number 2
Women between two shores
© Laurent Giorgetti
"In between" is how these women define themselves.
British writer Doris Lessing returns to her country of birth, Zimbabwe, and denounces our jaded world. Franco-Ivorian author Véronique Tadjo explains how travels can morph into exile. Spôjmaï Zariâb tells the story of war torn Afghanistan, from her Paris vantage point. Michal Govrin, from Israel, reveals the impassioned dimension of an unending conflict. In the United States, Indian author Kiran Desai questions the fate of belonging to two cultures. Argentine poet María Medrano builds a bridge between the free world and incarceration. All are women between two shores.
This Dossier is produced on the occasion of 8 March, International Women’s Day, in collaboration with the Division for Gender Equality of the Bureau of Strategic Planning, UNESCO. more
Doris Lessing: Is it so impossible to imagine such bare poverty?
Doris Lessing, Nobel Prize in Literature 2007, grew up in today’s Zimbabwe, before moving to London in 1949. Greatly attached to the country of her youth, which rejected her as undesirable for her anti-apartheid stand, the British novelist devoted a large part of her Nobel lecture, "On not winning the Nobel Prize", to it. Excerpts. More
Véronique Tadjo, a collector of travel souvenirs
Exile begins when you can no longer return to the country you left behind, says poet, writer, and painter Véronique Tadjo, laureate of the Grand Prix Littéraire d'Afrique Noire 2005. Born in 1955 in Paris and raised in Abidjan, she now lives in South Africa after having traveled throughout the world. More
Spôjmaï Zariâb : The Man from Kabul
Spôjmaï Zariâb was ten years old when the compulsory veil was abolished in Afghanistan in 1959. The future novelist led a happy life in Kabul, surrounded by books. Then, the Taliban seized power. In 1990, she took refuge in France with her two daughters. More
Michal Govrin : the curse of wandering
Michal Govrin reveals the passionate – even erotic - dimension of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Born in Tel Aviv, the novellist, poet and theatre director today lives between Israel and the United States. She is the laureate of the 2003 Acum Prize which rewards Israel's best literary work. More
Kiran Desai: A life between East and West
With The Inheritance of Loss, Kiran Desai has become the youngest female laureate of the Booker Prize (2006). In her book she talks about exile, globalization and belonging to two cultures. Born in New Delhi in 1971, she left India in 1986 with her mother, the author Anita Desai, to live in England and then the United States. More
María Medrano: Inside - Outside
Once a week, for the past five years, Argentine poet María Medrano gets behind the bars of a women’s prison near Buenos Aires to animate a poetry workshop. In so doing, she builds a bridge between “inside” and “outside”, which has become a vital space for the prisoners of different nationalities. More
