Lion Feuchtwanger at Camp des Milles in September 1939. Photo: Feuchtwanger Memorial Library.
The USC Libraries recently published a new edition of Lion Feuchtwanger's The Devil in France, an account of the novelist's internment in Nazi-occupied France. Feuchtwanger was an outspoken critic of the National Socialists whom the Nazis targeted for political persecution after assuming power in 1932. Forced to flee his native country, Feuchtwanger lived the rest of his life in exile.
The USC Libraries and USC Visions and Voices will commemorate publication of the Devil in France with "Enemy Number One": Lion Feuchtwanger and the Literature of Exile on Wednesday, September 29 at noon in Doheny Memorial Library's Friends of the USC Libraries Lecture Hall. The event, which also coincides with national Banned Book Week, features a panel discussion about censorship, political repression, and writing in exile.
Zimbabwean writer Christopher Mlalazi, who has written critically of the Mugabe regime, will share his experiences with political repression. Moderated by Feuchtwanger Librarian Marje Schuetze-Coburn, the panel also includes USC College professors Michelle Gordon and Wolf Gruner, as well as Cornelius Schnauber, director of USC's Max Kade Institute.
Following the discussion, Exile Studies Librarian Michaela Ullman will lead a special tour of USC's Feuchtwanger Memorial Library, home to Lion Feuchtwanger's papers and personal library and a destination for scholars of the German émigré community.
To learn more about Feuchtwanger and writing in exile, please see this research guide that Ullman and Schuetze-Coburn created for the event. USC students may also be interested in a related event on Tuesday, October 26 featuring a special tour and performance at Villa Aurora, the Pacific Palisades home of Lion and Marta Feuchtwanger. Please see this page for more information. (Registration is required.)