São Paulo – Out of the 39 writers who will participate in this year’s edition of the Paraty International Literary Festival (Flip), cartoonist Riad Sattouf is the only one of Arab descent. Fifteen other guests are non-Brazilian.
Sattouf has recently released his comic book The Arab of the Future – A Youth in the Middle East in Brazil. A native of Paris, France, the cartoonist portrays his childhood in Syria, where his father was born, and Libya (read more about it in ANBA’s Al-Sharq section or by clicking the link at the bottom of this page).
Flip’s 13th edition will be held from July 1st to 5th in the city of Paraty, Rio de Janeiro, and its key themes will be the dialogue between the arts and the oeuvre of writer Mário de Andrade, who will be honored 70 years after his passing.
According to the curator of Flip 2015, Paulo Werneck, having Sattouf at the event is a way of demystifying a few notions regarding Arab culture. The cartoonist is a former member of France’s satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, which was attacked last January in Paris.
“He’s not the first Arab descendant at Flip. We have had [Brazilian writer] Milton Hatoum in the past. He won’t be the first cartoonist either. His presence is important because Charlie gets greater public attention due to the fact that some people think a cartoonist can’t be Arab, or an Arab can’t be a cartoonist, or the two don’t go well together. Sattouf is both, and as such he can help eliminate this widespread notion,” Werneck told ANBA this Wednesday (13th). Other Arab writers, such as the Syrian poet Adonis, have attended past editions of Flip.
Werneck remarked that Sattouf is coming on occasion of the launch of his latest book in Brazil. “He is coming because of the book, which, by the way, is about reconciliation,” he said. On discussing the “Arab of the future,” which is the book’s title, Sattouf explained that his father championed pan-Arabism, and believed education was the way out of obscurantism. The “Arab of the future” must reconcile progress with staying true to tradition. On July 4th, Sattouf and his Brazilian counterpart Rafa Campos will discuss the “culture clash in comic books’ pages.”
Other topics
Flip will feature numerous other attractions and discussions. One of the guest writers is Italy’s Roberto Saviano, the author of books such as Gomorrah and Zero zero zero, his latest. Gomorrah depicts the underworld and crimes of Naples’ mafia, the Camorra. Saviano received death threats because of the book and was forced to live in seclusion, escorted by bodyguards. Zero zero zero traces the route of cocaine sales around the world until it reaches its final destination: the user. The book’s name is a reference to the highest grade drug there is.
Another key subject of Flip’s will be eroticism in literature. “Erotica literature goes back a long time; it has been around since the Bible and the One thousand and one nights, to name an example from Arabic literature. This year, we will approach two books on the subject (one of them is I Antologia da poesia erótica Brasileira – 1st Anthology of Brazilian erotic poetry, organized by Eliane Robert Moraes) to deal with this contemporary topic. Our intention is to provide a counterpoint to commercial eroticism,” Werneck said.
The ideas and topics that Mário de Andrade’s work deals with will be featured at different points in time during Flip. His influence will be discussed at meetings about Brazilian architecture and literature, the São Paulo culture, and music.
The author of books like Amar, verbo intransitive (To love, an intransitive verb) and O turista aprendiz (The apprentice tourist), Mário de Andrade was a key agitator in the anthropophagic movement of 1922, which championed the development of a genuinely Brazilian culture, not only in literature, but also in the fine arts, theater and music. Andrade’s masterpiece, Macunaíma, from 1928, is an example of this cultural movement in Brazilian literature.
Paraty International Literary Festival – Flip
July 1st to 5th
Paraty, Rio de Janeiro
The debate panel “De balões e blasfêmias” (Of balloons and blasphemies), featuring Riad Sattouf, will take place on July 4th at 3pm. Panels will be charged.
For the full program and additional information go to http://www.flip.org.br/?idioma_new=I
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
