Name: WHY WE LIVE IN J.G.BALLARD´S DYSTOPIAN WORLD- A TALK WITH PROFESSOR ROGER LUCKHURST
Start: 2024-11-02T15:00:00+02:00
End: 2024-11-02T16:30:00+02:00
Location: Koldingbibliotekerne

$WHY WE LIVE IN J.G.BALLARD\u00b4S DYSTOPIAN WORLD- A TALK WITH PROFESSOR ROGER LUCKHURST$

“In a completely sane world, madness is the only freedom” (J.G. Ballard)
In this talk Professor Luckhurst will take the audience on a journey in J.G. Ballard´s multifaceted and fascinating, but also dystopian and challenging, universe. On the basis of his extensive research into Ballard´s literary and cultural criticism, Luckhurst will outline the main themes of Ballard’s complex production and link them to highly relevant themes and problems in today’s society, which Ballard´s writing has almost prophetically touched upon. These relate, for example, to climate change, technology and power, man´s relationship with his surroundings, the feeling of alienation, existential boredom, tendencies towards “soft fascism”, and the sometimes porous wall that separates civilization and barbarism.
J.G.Ballard (1930-2009) was a British writer and journalist, best known for the dystopian science fiction novels Crash (1973) and High Rise (1975), both made into films by David Cronenberg and Ben Wheatley respectively, and the semi-autobiographic Empire of the Sun (1984), which was made into film by Steven Spielberg in 1987.
Roger Luckhurst is a British writer and since 2008 professor at Birkbeck University, London with films, literature and culture from 19th century till now as his speciality, particularly science fiction, weird fiction, gothic and Victorian fiction.
He has published books on J.G. Ballard, Science Fiction, films such as The Alien and The Shining, zombies and gothic literature.
Since 2016 Luckhurst has been a guest professor at Columbia University.
The talk will be held in Bryggeriet, in the basement of the library.
Tickets: 70 dkr.
There will be no presale, but tickets can be reserved –just send us a message via messenger.
Please note, that the event takes place after the library’s closing time, so be there well before 2 p.m.
The event is supported financially by the local council, Kolding Kommune.