FRANCESCO MAGRIS: THE BORDER

THE BORDER
ON THE PERMEABILITY OF A DIVISIVE CONCEPT

Francesco Magris, born in Trieste in 1966, studied economics in Italy, Belgium and Cambridge. Magris is Professor of Economics at the University of Tours, France. The Border is Francesco Magris‘ first book in German.

Hanno Loewy, born in Frankfurt/Main in 1961, literary and media scholar, publicist and director of the Jewish Museum Hohenems, where the exhibition Sag Schibbolet! Of Visible and Invisible Borders was on display until March 2019.

Francesco Magris' reflections range from the state border to the omnipresent populism that pits minorities against majorities, from the emancipation of the fringe from the centre using the example of rampant separatism to the economic benefits of the border. Born in the border town of Trieste, he traces the differences without which neither the individual nor society would be able to survive. The border is a sensitive edge, biting like an irritable nerve, where the relationship between centre and periphery becomes particularly contradictory. Using examples, Magris demonstrates the claim to the cunningly anarchic freedom to confidently cross borders, not only in literature, but also in the economy and in society.

In co-operation with Zsolnay Verlag

Franceso Magris: The border. Von der Durchlässigkeit eines trennenden Begriffs (translated from the Italian by Annette Kopetzki, IBSN 978-3-552-05931-3, published by Zsolnay in March 2019)

The event will be held in English.