Paroles de créateurs" cycle - Literature and travel: meeting with Turkish writer Nedim Gürsel

This story is a journey through the Iranian landscape, from Shiraz to Meched, from Isfahan to Persepolis and Tehran, via the Persian Gulf. And although this long journey is centered on the capitals and holy places, the author's memories sometimes inflect this book towards a score of influences, cultural and political mirrors echoing those of his country, Turkey. Thus, beyond a geographical and human portrait of Iran, Nedim Gürsel's references are above all literary. He is deeply moved by the committed beauty of Forough Farrokhzad's poetry, and by that of the great classics such as Omar Khayyam, not to mention the melancholy prose of Sadegh Hedayat, which plays a key role in this wide-ranging aesthetic cosmogony. From hotels to cafés, from architectural splendours to remarkable libraries, Nedim Gürsel, now a writer of places, lets himself be dazzled, before finally reaching the desolate region of Khorassan, where he tells his reader the spellbinding Shiite legend of the Hidden Imam. It's the ultimate way to dream, perhaps, of another spirituality, far removed from those currently practiced in Iran and Turkey.


Nedim Gürsel was born in south-east Turkey. He studied in Paris, where he completed his doctorate in comparative literature under René Étiemble. An acclaimed novelist and essayist in both Turkey and France, he is also director of research emeritus at the CNRS, and a lecturer at the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales. He lives in Paris but regularly visits Turkey.
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April 12, 2022 at 5pm in Amphi 6, Inalco
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Free admission, subject to availability