We live in tumultuous times faced with existential challenges on several fronts at the same time. In order to reach for a brighter future across generations and geographies, it is of prime importance to free the imagination from the shackles of outdated modes of thinking. Imagination can be a significant vector of change when it is released constructively. Literature and the arts as a whole offer creative possibilities for looking at the world in a different light—to reimagine our humanity in all its transformative power and to foster a greater awareness of our shared future.

Author, scholar and artist Véronique Tadjo was born in Paris, and grew up in Abidjan. She has travelled widely. Her novels are translated into many languages. Some of her works include As the Crow Flies, Queen Pokou, The Shadow of Imana: Travels to the Heart of Rwanda and Far from my Father. She was the recipient of Le Grand Prix littéraire d’Afrique Noire. Her novel In the Company of Men won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction in 2022 and the South Africa National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences Award for best Fiction in 2023. She also writes and illustrates books for young people.

I. The Role of Fiction in the Environmental Crisis (Wednesday, 24 January)
II. The Making of World Literatures through Translation (Tuesday, 30 January)
III. Writing, Painting and Illustrating (Tuesday, 6 February)
IV. Old and New Stories: A Writer’s Journey (Tuesday, 13 February)

occt.web.ox.ac.uk/event/the-weidenfeld-lectures-2024-freeing-the-imagination