The Fragility of Freedom
Anyone paying attention can see which way history seems to be heading: regimes are growing less democratic, human rights are under pressure around the globe, and critical voices are being marginalised or silenced altogether. More and more people find themselves caught in systems that constrain or divide them. Time and again, we’re reminded that freedom is not a given. It is fragile, and it often disappears far more quickly than it is gained.
Under the theme The Fragility of Freedom, we explore how literature can help us remain alert to this erosion of freedom – and how it can offer glimpses of what might remain of our humanity if those freedoms are permanently curtailed. What does it mean to be free? And what does it feel like to lose that freedom, little by little? Writers such as Lea Ypi and Paul Lynch show how individuals try to stay afloat in systems that force them to make impossible choices.
In the Fragility of Freedom programmes, we discuss books that make tangible what it’s like to have your life gripped by the system. The work of Lynch, Ypi and others is not alarmist or propagandistic. On the contrary: these are deceptively beautiful stories about people who don’t have the luxury of lofty ideals, simply because surviving is, in itself, an act of resistance.
What does it ask of a person – a writer, a reader – to keep freedom alive? How do you stay vigilant when loss comes in such subtle waves? The novels we discuss during Exploring Stories don’t offer easy answers, but they do remind us what’s truly at stake when we speak of ‘our freedom’.