On Thursday 23 September, Italian writer Elena Ferrante will deliver the thirteenth Belle van Zuylen lecture at the ILFU International Literature Festival Utrecht. She will also receive the Belle van Zuylenring, an international honorary award of the ILFU in cooperation with the municipality of Utrecht. Elena Ferrante is the author of, among others, the four-volume bestseller De geniale vriendin (Edizione e/o; Wereldbibliotheek).
Unique event
The fact that Elena Ferrante is writing the Belle van Zuylen lecture, previously given by Margaret Atwood, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Jeanette Winterson, among others, is unique. She never appears in public and who is behind the author pseudonym Elena Ferrante is not known. For the ILFU, she is now writing a new text that will be read by Olga Zuiderhoek (known from Werkteater and television roles in The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen and Penoza, among others) during the opening night of the ILFU on 23 September. From the start of the festival, Zuiderhoek's version, as well as two versions in Italian and English performed by renowned actresses, can also be viewed and listened to via ilfu.com
Awarding Belle van Zuylenring during opening night ILFU
The Belle van Zuylenring will be awarded on 23 September by Alderman of Culture Anke Klein to Ester Hueting, employee and on this evening representative of Ferrantes Italian publishing house Edizione e/o. The award ceremony will take place during the opening night of the ILFU on 23 September at TivoliVredenburg, including a reading by Olga Zuiderhoek and a unique performance by Amsterdam Sinfonietta. There will also be a conversation led by journalist Simone Weimans with historians and connoisseurs about the legacy of Belle van Zuylen, the eighteenth-century writer, thinker and composer after whom the lecture and ring are named. Van Zuylen's centuries-long reputation as a progressive thinker with a sharp, socially critical pen was recently called into question in the book Slavery and the City of Utrecht. It revealed that many in the city of Utrecht, including the Van Zuylen family, profited greatly from slavery. During the talk, the new insights and their impact on the appreciation of Van Zuylen's work will be discussed.
The jury of the Belle van Zuylenring about Ferrante
Ferrante has outlined the position of women in twentieth-century Italy in countless unforgettable novel characters since her debut in 1992. Her prose is crystal clear and straightforward, akin to the modernist intimacy of writers like Virginia Woolf and Elsa Morante. Her radical choice to remain anonymous but explicitly identify as a woman is a powerful statement with feminist value in itself. Through her novels, Ferrante demonstrates why fiction matters: without getting in the way of her own origins, history, personal beliefs or public actions, she gives a voice to women from different social classes. The voice of her fiction carries far: without Ferrante's novels, these women would never have come so close.
Opening night ILFU, 23 September 2021, TivoliVredenburg. More information and tickets: https://www.ilfu.com/evenement/belle-van-zuylenlezing-elena-ferrante/
Including: Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Olga Zuiderhoek, Simone Weimans, Suzan van Dijk, Anke Klein and others. After the opening night, the lecture can be viewed in three languages at ilfu.com. The names of the Italian- and English-speaking actresses reciting the lecture on screen will be announced later.
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ILFU 2021: Why Fiction Matters
Taking place in Utrecht from 23 September to 2 October, ILFU's theme is Why Fiction Matters. Utrecht has been a UNESCO City of Literature since 2017. ILFU opens with the Belle van Zuylenlezing and ends with the Night of Poetry, in between there are numerous programmes: from the YALFU to the NK Poetry Slam, from the Storytelling Competition to the Maya Angelou film programme and Who We Are programmes on Morocco; live Book Talks by o.Édouard Louis, Deborah Levy and Max Porter among others and the not-to-be-missed festival day 'Exploring Stories' with a host of writers, including Jeanette Winterson, Roxane Gay, Alfred Birney, Caroline Lamarche, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Imbolo Mbue, Roberto Saviano, Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Lale Gül. On 30 September it will be announced who will be awarded the C.C.S. Crone Stipendia, the literary incentive prizes of the Municipality of Utrecht.
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