Acclaimed author and human rights activist, Ariel Dorfman, will deliver the Eighth Annual Lecture on July 31 this year
February 1, 2010 – World-acclaimed Chilean-American author, human rights activist and distinguished professor of Literature and Latin-American Studies, Ariel Dorfman, will present the Eighth Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture at Johannesburg’s Linder Auditorium on July 31, 2010.
Dorfman served as the cultural advisor to Salvador Allende, Chile’s president from 1970 to 1973. The democratically elected Allende died during the 1973 coup, staged by Augusto Pinochet. This coup also resulted in the death and disappearance of thousands of Chileans and forced Dorfman into exile.
The author of many novels, plays, poems, essays and films will speak on the theme “Memory and Justice” at the 2010 Annual Lecture.
“We are thrilled to have a speaker of the stature of Ariel Dorfman,” says Achmat Dangor, Chief Executive of the Nelson Mandela Foundation. “His life and work speaks to what we at the Nelson Mandela Foundation are doing through our Centre of Memory and Dialogue.”
Previous Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture speakers are: Nobel Peace Laureates Professor Muhammad Yunus, Professor Wangari Maathai, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Kofi Anan, former presidents Bill Clinton and Thabo Mbeki, and President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.
Ariel Dorfman’s biography is available as a downloadable PDF.
A Promise to the Dead is an autobiographical account of Ariel Dorfman’s exile from Chile
Death and the Maiden is arguably Ariel Dorfman’s most famous play
Ariel Dorfman’s book Excorcising Terror details the trial of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet
Ariel Dorfman’s book Heading South, Looking North looks at the role language plays in forming identity
Ariel Dorfman is a globally acclaimed author, human rights activist and distinguished professor of Literature and Latin-American Studies
Other Septembers, Many Americas, by Ariel Dorfman, examining America after the September 11 attack in 2001
Ariel Dorfman’s Purgatorio details a conversation between a man and a woman as they wait in purgatory