{"id":5316,"date":"2025-07-07T11:36:49","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T11:36:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kreisky-forum.org\/veranstaltung\/in-praise-of-political-literature"},"modified":"2025-12-03T10:57:56","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T10:57:56","slug":"in-praise-of-political-literature","status":"publish","type":"kreisky_event","link":"https:\/\/www.kreisky-forum.org\/en\/veranstaltung\/in-praise-of-political-literature","title":{"rendered":"IN PRAISE OF POLITICAL LITERATURE"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Tessa Szyszkowitz in conversation <\/strong><strong>with Jonathan Coe and <\/strong><strong>Giuliano da Empoli<\/strong><\/p>\n<h4>IN PRAISE OF POLITICAL LITERATURE<\/h4>\n<p><em><strong>When politics goes low, literature goes high<\/strong><strong>When, how and why do authors give their novels a political twist?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>When Michelle Obama coined the phrase \u201cWhen they go low, we go high\u201d at the Democratic Party conference in 2016 she was talking about ethical leadership. Different from politicians, authors do not have an obligation to be either ethical nor leaders. Or do they?<\/p>\n<p>Literature has been abused for political propaganda throughout history. Virgil's \u201cAeneid\u201d portrayed the emperor Augustus as heroic and his regime as a gift from God. In more modern times Jean Paul Sartre and Theodor Adorno had a public spat about pros and cons of political literature: In his essay \u201cWhat is literature?\u201d Sartre advocated for engaged literature to further social change. In his essay \u201cCommitment\u201d Adorno called such literature as ineffective and even harmful.<\/p>\n<p>Both Jonathan Coe and Giuliano da Empoli are known for their political literature. While Coe often uses humour and satire to mix social commentary into his bestsellers - as in his Brexit satire Middle England - da Empoli comes from the other direction entirely. His first time novel and instant bestseller The Wizard of the Kremlin - Der Magier im Kreml - was a beautiful novel about a trade he knows all too well himself. He writes about Vladislav Surkov, former influential chief advisor to the Russian president Vladimir Putin, after da Empoli served as a political former advisor to former Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jonathan Coe, born 1961, <\/strong>is a British novelist. He would possibly rather be known as a musician - he still plays keyboards and composes music for two bands: The Peer Group and Italy's Artchipel Orchestra. But since he became too successful as a novelist, people know him as an author. \u201cWhat a Carve Up!\u201d, \u201cThe Rotters club\u201d, \u201cMiddle England\u201d are only a few highlights in his oeuvre. He received many prizes among them The Costa Novel of the Year and the Prix du Livre Europ\u00e9en. His latest novel was published this August in German: \u201cDer Beweis meiner Unschuld\u201d, Folio Verlag, 2025.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Giuliano da Empoli, born 1973, <\/strong>is the Swiss Italian author of The Wizard of the Kremlin - Der Magier im Kreml, a first time novel and bestseller about Vladislaw Surkow, former influential chief advisor to the Russian president Vladimir Putin. He is a former political advisor himself, he served as the deputy mayor for cultural affairs in Florence to Matteo Renzi, and later as his political advisor during Renzi's term as head of the Italian government (2014-2016) - an experience recounted in Le Florentin (\"The Florentine\") Giuliano da Empoli is a professor at Sciences Po university, the founder of the pro-European political thinktank Volta in Milan and has just publishedhis new book Die Stunde der Raubtiere (L'Heure des pr\u00e9dateurs, The Hour of the Predator,), a reflection on the current era of new autocrats allied with tech magnates.<strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Tessa Szyszkowitz<\/strong> is an author and UK correspondent for the Austrian weekly Falter. Her latest book was \u201cEchte Engl\u00e4nder - Britain and Brexit\u201d (2018)<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tessa Szyszkowitz in conversation with Jonathan Coe and Giuliano da Empoli IN PRAISE OF POLITICAL LITERATURE When politics goes low, literature goes high: When, how and why do authors give their novels a political twist? When Michelle Obama coined the phrase \u201cWhen they go low, we go high\u201d at the Democratic Party conference in 2016 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":5317,"template":"","format":[29],"meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"schwerpunkt":[43],"class_list":["post-5316","kreisky_event","type-kreisky_event","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","schwerpunkt-internationale-politik-europa-und-sicherheit","format-podiumsdiskussion"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>IN PRAISE OF POLITICAL LITERATURE - Kreisky Forum<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kreisky-forum.org\/en\/event\/in-praise-of-political-literature\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"IN PRAISE OF POLITICAL LITERATURE - Kreisky Forum\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tessa Szyszkowitz in conversation with Jonathan Coe and Giuliano da Empoli IN PRAISE OF POLITICAL LITERATURE When politics goes low, literature goes high: When, how and why do authors give their novels a political twist? When Michelle Obama coined the phrase \u201cWhen they go low, we go high\u201d at the Democratic Party conference in 2016 [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.kreisky-forum.org\/en\/event\/in-praise-of-political-literature\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Kreisky Forum\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-03T10:57:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.kreisky-forum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Collage-neu.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1309\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"552\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.kreisky-forum.org\\\/veranstaltung\\\/in-praise-of-political-literature\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.kreisky-forum.org\\\/veranstaltung\\\/in-praise-of-political-literature\",\"name\":\"IN PRAISE OF POLITICAL LITERATURE - Kreisky Forum\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.kreisky-forum.org\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.kreisky-forum.org\\\/veranstaltung\\\/in-praise-of-political-literature#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.kreisky-forum.org\\\/veranstaltung\\\/in-praise-of-political-literature#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.kreisky-forum.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/11\\\/Collage-neu.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-07T11:36:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-12-03T10:57:56+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.kreisky-forum.org\\\/veranstaltung\\\/in-praise-of-political-literature#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.kreisky-forum.org\\\/veranstaltung\\\/in-praise-of-political-literature\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.kreisky-forum.org\\\/veranstaltung\\\/in-praise-of-political-literature#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.kreisky-forum.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/11\\\/Collage-neu.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.kreisky-forum.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/11\\\/Collage-neu.png\",\"width\":1309,\"height\":552},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.kreisky-forum.org\\\/veranstaltung\\\/in-praise-of-political-literature#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.kreisky-forum.org\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Veranstaltungen\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.kreisky-forum.org\\\/veranstaltung\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"IN PRAISE OF POLITICAL LITERATURE\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.kreisky-forum.org\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.kreisky-forum.org\\\/\",\"name\":\"Bruno Kreisky Forum\",\"description\":\"Bruno Kreisky Forum f\u00fcr internationalen Dialog\",\"alternateName\":\"BRUNO KREISKY FORUM f\u00fcr internationalen Dialog\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.kreisky-forum.org\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"IN PRAISE OF POLITICAL LITERATURE - Kreisky Forum","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.kreisky-forum.org\/en\/event\/in-praise-of-political-literature","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"IN PRAISE OF POLITICAL LITERATURE - Kreisky Forum","og_description":"Tessa Szyszkowitz in conversation with Jonathan Coe and Giuliano da Empoli IN PRAISE OF POLITICAL LITERATURE When politics goes low, literature goes high: When, how and why do authors give their novels a political twist? When Michelle Obama coined the phrase \u201cWhen they go low, we go high\u201d at the Democratic Party conference in 2016 [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.kreisky-forum.org\/en\/event\/in-praise-of-political-literature","og_site_name":"Kreisky Forum","article_modified_time":"2025-12-03T10:57:56+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1309,"height":552,"url":"https:\/\/www.kreisky-forum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Collage-neu.png","type":"image\/png"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.kreisky-forum.org\/veranstaltung\/in-praise-of-political-literature","url":"https:\/\/www.kreisky-forum.org\/veranstaltung\/in-praise-of-political-literature","name":"IN PRAISE OF POLITICAL LITERATURE - Kreisky Forum","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kreisky-forum.org\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kreisky-forum.org\/veranstaltung\/in-praise-of-political-literature#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kreisky-forum.org\/veranstaltung\/in-praise-of-political-literature#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.kreisky-forum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Collage-neu.png","datePublished":"2025-07-07T11:36:49+00:00","dateModified":"2025-12-03T10:57:56+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kreisky-forum.org\/veranstaltung\/in-praise-of-political-literature#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.kreisky-forum.org\/veranstaltung\/in-praise-of-political-literature"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.kreisky-forum.org\/veranstaltung\/in-praise-of-political-literature#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.kreisky-forum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Collage-neu.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.kreisky-forum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Collage-neu.png","width":1309,"height":552},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.kreisky-forum.org\/veranstaltung\/in-praise-of-political-literature#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.kreisky-forum.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Veranstaltungen","item":"https:\/\/www.kreisky-forum.org\/veranstaltung"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"IN PRAISE OF POLITICAL LITERATURE"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.kreisky-forum.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.kreisky-forum.org\/","name":"Bruno Kreisky Forum","description":"Bruno Kreisky Forum for International Dialogue","alternateName":"BRUNO KREISKY FORUM f\u00fcr internationalen Dialog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.kreisky-forum.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kreisky-forum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/events\/5316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kreisky-forum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/events"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kreisky-forum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/kreisky_event"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kreisky-forum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/events\/5316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7809,"href":"https:\/\/www.kreisky-forum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/events\/5316\/revisions\/7809"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kreisky-forum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kreisky-forum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"schwerpunkt","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kreisky-forum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/schwerpunkt?post=5316"},{"taxonomy":"format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kreisky-forum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/format?post=5316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}