Meetings and Themes
PIRAN
01 09 - 12 May 1968 The unifying values of antagonisms
02 10 - 12 May 1969 Art - a beginning or the end?
03 09 - 11 May 1970 Deus in machina - Deus ex machina
04 07 - 12 May 1971 Why do we write?
International PEN Conference
a) Creative writing as subjective expression or as a
means of moral and social action
b) Writing as negation of death and oblivion
Permanence as a criterion of evaluation
c) Literature as a substitute for religion or a system of morals
d) Creative writing as a means of achieving human contact across time and space
05 12 - 15 May 1972 Literature as information
a) Literature from the trivial to the hermetic
b) Literature from national to international
06 15 - 19 May 1973 What do we want?
a) The writer and his readers
b) Writing techniques
c) The writer's means of expression:
Mother tongue or several languages
07 01 - 05 October 1974 The writer caught in the contradictions
of modern civilisation
a) The territory of humanism and the use of terrorism
in the contemporary world
b) The young generations between apathy and revolt
08 07 - 11 May 1975 Contemporary prose
a) The novel
b) The short - story
c) The essay
09 26 - 30 May 1976 Perception and creation in literature
a) Hermetic literature
b) The writer advancing an ideology or merely recording events
BLED
10 11 - 15 May 1977 New alternatives
a) The writer in a declining world
b) The writer in a rising world
c) The writer as a bridge between two worlds
11 16 - 20 May 1978 Anguish of the contemporary world and literature
a) Freedom, order, anarchy, violence
b) Love, eroticism, sex, pornography
c) Formal perfection, challenge, nothing
12 08 - 13 May 1979 Literature as an instrument of new universalism
Literature as a bridge between peoples
13 06 - 11 May 1980 Author between critique and the public
International PEN conference
a) The critic and the best - seller
b) Critique as creation
c) The critic and cultural politics
14 13 - 17 May 1981 Hindrances affecting a writer's work
a) External hindrances
b) Self - censorship
c) Writer's block
15 12 - 16 May 1982 Literature - idea - ideology
a) Literature as a struggle
b) Literature as a game
c) Literature as an adventure
16 16 - 20 May 1983 Reality of the world and artistic truth
a) The manipulation of reality and art
b) The construction of reality in art
c) The public as a function of artistic truth?
17 04 - 08 May 1984 The year of Orwell - 1984
a) Historical memory
"Day by day and almost minute by minute
the past was brought up to date.
In this way every prediction made by the Party could be
shown by documentary evidence to have been correct..."
b) Social structure
"In the long run, a hierarchical society was only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance."
c) Man's intimate world
"I have not betrayed Julia," he said. O'Brien looked down
at him thoughtfully. "No," he said, "no, that is perfectly
true. You have not betrayed Julia."
18 08 - 12 May 1985 The hereditary enemy
a) National, ethnic and racial hatred
b) Social, class and ideological hatred
c) Hatred of the foreign, of the different and
of the marginal
19 07 - 11 May 1986 The cultural identity of small nations ...
a) under contemporary pressure of ideologies and great
numbers
b) in the grip of systems and means of communication
c) in the space of Central Europe
20 06 - 10 May 1987 The truth of literature and the truth of history
a) Literature and truth
b) History as a lie of the ruling power and literature as
a substitute for historiography
c) Literature as a shaper of historical consciousness
21 11 - 15 May 1988 To belong to a minority - to belong to the majority
a) A minority: advantages and disadvantages
b) Whence the hatred of the majority for minorities
c) Writers: a spiritual minority?
22 16 - 20 May 1989 Overcoming the deficits of the past between
East and West
a) The native country and the exile
b) Literature in exile
c) Politics and literature in the East and in the West
23 15 - 19 May 1990 Fear today
24 14 - 18 May 1991 Nations - nationalisms - writers
25 26 - 30 May 1992 Pen and sword
26 25 - 29 May 1993 Am I my brother's keeper?
27 24 - 28 May 1994 Hate speech and the language of tolerance
28 30 May - 3 June 1995 Fascism past and present
The role of writers and literature today
29 21 - 25 May 1996 Antigone today
Si vis pacem ...
30 21 - 25 May 1997 "Esprits maudits"
Pen at a crossroads: after the cold war do we face a
confrontation of civilisations, religions, cultures ...
War as a video game
31 20 - 24 May 1998 Laughter at the end of the millennium
Cassandra today ''''''''
32 19 - 23 May 1999 National literatures and the process of globalisation
The Balkans: the role of writers for the promotion of
the culture of peace
33 03 - 07 May 2000 The language of literature from the earth to new
horizons
Universal human rights under pressure of new world
divisions
34 23 - 27 May 2001 Literature as the Eros of the new era
Human rights and the writer's mission
35 15 - 19 May 2002 What is left to us of the 20th century?
The writer's responsibility
36 21 - 25 May 2003 Oh, The Brave New World (after Huxley)
An eye for an eye and the entire world will be blind
37 26 - 30 May 2004 European culture or European cultures
Peace: a lucky or an unlucky compromise
Bled 14 - 21 June 2005 World Congress of International PEN
The Tower of Babel - a blessing or a curse?
Literature as a safeguard of the cultural landscape
The language of peace - Literature as lingua franca
38 28 March - 02 April 2006 Globalisation of the world - Marginalisation of
Literature
The Role of PEN in the contemporary world
Freedom of expression as a means against terrorism
39 28 March - 01 April 2007 Languages under threat - Dying cultures
Reading as a social event
Post - totalitarian resistance
40 26 - 30 March 2008 What is the European consciousness?
a) Philosophical and sociological aspects
b) Literary, cultural and civilisational aspects
c) An ethical attitude to history as a source of peace
41 25 - 29 March 2009 The age of liberation
The role of culture and public media in the processes
of liberation
Images of womanhood in literature as a path of peace
42 24 - 28 March 2010 Globalisation: an opportunity for all or a new
colonisation for many
Literature and Globalisation
Peace between diurnal and nocturnal dreams
43 04 - 08 May 2011 Biblio-diversity and the future of writing
Freedom of expression: overt and covert censorship
The Image of a stranger in literature as a route to peace
44 16 - 20 May 2012 Transformation – new paths or the decline of western
rational civilization
Perennial modernity
Sharing with others, a path to peace
45 08 - 12 May 2013 Literary creation: from the periphery to the centre
The writer as a traveller creating peace facing the
challenges of the new media
The role of PEN today and in the future (discussion)
Digital freedom, peace and conflict - PEN declaration
on digital freedom (workshop)
46 07 - 10 May 2014 "A Farewell to arms?" The First World War in literature
"Do we live in war or in peace?" Cultural and political
consequences of the Great War
47 06 - 09 May 2015 The writer in a society reduced to its public sphere
Visible and invisible wars
48 05 - 08 May 2016 The treasure of the other
Stupidity as the foundation of civilisation
We are all migrants – terrorism everywhere
49 10 - 13 May 2017 Is hate speech a declaration of war
Landscapes of chaos
War and Peace
50 18 - 21 April 2018 Wall, fence, border
Literature as the right to dream
