Culture and Creativity Seminar – The Role of Literature in a Time of Polarization: Post-Oct 7, Writing about Family, War and Erased Histories
Speaker: Jane MesserDate\Time: Thursday 13 August 2026, 12:30-13:30Location: Building 1 Level A Room 1A21, University of ÃØÃÜÖ±²¥ (NB Room 1a21 is accessed from the foyer joining Building 1 and Mizzuna café); or Zoom: http://zoom.us/j/95029077504 AbstractHow does a writer respond when family history collides with a political present? This paper explores how researching and writing my memoir, Raven Mother: War, Family and Inheritance (NewSouth Publishing, March 2026), revealed that my writing honestly about family history was an inherently political act. It examines the challenges of writing about Israel, Gaza and the West Bank after October 7 for readers in a deeply polarised Australia.My book Raven Mother traces the many ways war, persecution and dispossession shaped my German Jewish family across twentieth- and twenty-first-century Germany, British Mandate Palestine, Israel and Australia. After October 7’s terror attack by Hamas and the catastrophic violence that followed in Gaza, I was faced with the question ‘What is the responsibility of a memoirist when private family history becomes entangled with public history that is still unfolding?’ I felt compelled to bring two painful and contested histories into dialogue—not to equate them, but to resist erasure and acknowledge the suffering embedded in both.While many readers have welcomed the final approach which I took in Raven Mother, responses within the Australian Jewish-identified community have ranged from engaged disagreement to silence, and I’ve lost long-held friendships.This paper reflects on these responses and silences and considers what responsibilities writers bear when personal history enters contested political terrain.All are welcome!BioJane Messer is a Visiting Fellow, Centre for Creative and Cultural Research and former Associate Professor and Director of Creative Writing, Macquarie University. Raven Mother: War, Family and Inheritance: a memoir is her first full length nonfiction work, following on from the acclaimed novels Hopscotch, Provenance and Night By Night, and academic research on mother and work. She is the Creative Director and founder of StorySALOON: Short Stories, Centre Stage, and mentors creative and academic authors.Supports and fundings This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body, and by the NSW Government through Create NSW. OthersGenerous support of DAAD, the German Academic Exchange Service; in-kind support provided by the Centre for Creative and Cultural Research, University of ÃØÃÜÖ±²¥, and Macquarie University; and Visiting Fellowships at the Centre for Transdisciplinary Research, Humboldt University of Berlin, and University of Potsdam.Book: https://unsw.press/books/raven-mother/The Culture and Creativity Seminar Series is hosted by the Centre for Cultural and Creative Research (CCCR), Faculty of Arts and Design, University of ÃØÃÜÖ±²¥. To discover upcoming seminars, please follow us on Facebook @uccccr, or Instagram and Twitter @uc_cccr. Alternatively, join our mailing list by emailing cccr@canberra.edu.au. Any questions and accessibility requests please contact: cccr@canberra.edu.au.
