Our Workshops

Writer as Reader Workshops

 At 18, Erich Maria Remarque witnessed the horror of trench warfare firsthand. In 1928 he wrote All Quiet On The Western Front, using the character of Paul Baumer as the voice through which readers experience the horror of WWI.  In the novel, Baumer makes a promise to the soldier he killed, “I promise you, comrade, it (war) shall never happen again.” Now, it is 2009 and as evidenced all around us wars continue to happen and even escalate in their horror. This workshop will explore whether it’s possible to reread All Quiet on the Western Front in the light of the present. Theodor Adorno said, “History does not merely touch on language, but takes place in it.” Using poetry of the late 20^th and early 21st century, we will look for new language and metaphors to provide us with ways to re-see this much taught and read novel. In “Children of Our Era,” written in 2001, Nobel laureate Wislawa Szymborska writes, “Like it or not, your genes have a political past.” That single line has a charge for reconsidering Remarque's work and the war that killed 9 million soldiers. This workshop will set into motion a conversation among texts: Along with “Children of Our Era” we will read “The Diameter of the Bomb” by Yehuda Amichai, “Hum” by Ann Lauterbach, and poetry from World War I, with the overall purpose to discover new inquiries into All Quiet on The Western Front. Although this work is a novel, it may be considered a document from World War I, the first war between nations and not between armies.

Texts: Bring any edition of the novel; a packet of the selected poems will be sent to participants upon registration.