Arundhati Roy's Azadi and John Berger's Legacy on Writing as Smuggling Stories
In her 2020 publication Azadi, released by Penguin, Arundhati Roy delves into themes of freedom and oppression in India, with a particular focus on Kashmir, where 70,000 lives have been lost and many remain unaccounted for. This anthology features a mix of lectures and articles, including a critique of India's governance published in the New York Times in 2017. Roy draws on the insights of John Berger, who passed away in 2017, particularly his notion of the storyteller as a passeur, as well as W.G. Sebald's observations about the tendency to ignore atrocities. Azadi explores the boundaries of art and literature, questioning the divide between fiction and non-fiction, and posits that fiction can convey truths that direct speech cannot.
Key facts
- Arundhati Roy's book Azadi was published in 2020 by Penguin.
- John Berger, who died in 2017, was an art critic and novelist known for Ways of Seeing (1972).
- Azadi discusses repression in Kashmir, citing 70,000 dead and thousands disappeared.
- Roy references Berger's concept of the storyteller as a passeur smuggling stories.
- ArtReview republished a Berger article from the 1950s in 2016 on art and property.
- Roy's lecture 'The Language of Literature' was given in New York in May 2019.
- W.G. Sebald is mentioned in relation to a 2018 lecture at the British Library in London.
- Berger contributed to Art News and Review, the precursor to ArtReview.
Entities
Artists
- John Berger
- Arundhati Roy
- W.G. Sebald
Institutions
- ArtReview
- Art News and Review
- Penguin
- The New York Times
- The New Statesman
- British Library
Locations
- Kashmir
- India
- New York
- United States
- London
- United Kingdom