PHILOXENIA. Curated by Tessa Szyszkowitz

Bruno Kreisky Forum for International Dialogue, Armbrustergasse 15, 1190 Vienna
please register: fon: 3188260/20 | fax: 318 82 60/10 | email: einladung.kreiskyforum@kreisky.org

ELLEKE BOEHMER
AFTER THE EMPIRE: MASCULINITY AND POWER

Elleke Boehmer, Professor of World Literature in English in the English Faculty, University of Oxford, and currently Director of the Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH). She is a founding figure in the field of colonial and postcolonial studies, and internationally known for her research in anglophone literatures of empire and anti-empire. She is an acclaimed novelist and short story writer, most recently of The Shouting in the Dark (2015).

Why do men commit these crimes? “Because they can,” says Elleke Boehmer. “It’s still in some senses socially sanctioned. Male violence against women is triggered by feelings of defensiveness, threat and insecurity.” She links some of the phenomenon to men losing their position as breadwinner, or their sense of power. “So you lash out in the way you know best, that has been socially sanctioned in the past.” Deindustrialisation, change of political regime, conflict – “In the end, it leads to women’s bodies bearing the brunt of male violence.”

Moderation: Tessa Szyszkowitz, journalist and author