On March 16, 2023, Juan Gabriel Vásquez gave The Hayden V. White Distinguished Annual Lecture entitled, “Restoring Continuity: Notes on History and Fiction.”
Vásquez’s lecture focused on the rise of fascism in Europe. In 1935, Paul Valéry tried to identify in a lecture the origins of the crisis. Things were better, he said, when people were able to understand their present moment as the result of past events, when “continuity reigned in the minds.” In this lecture, Juan Gabriel Vásquez will discussed why that sense of continuity with the past is in fact indispensable, for individuals and societies alike, and he suggested that fiction –the literary imagination of the historical past– might be uniquely adept at restoring it when it is broken.
If you missed Vásquez’s lecture, a recording of the event can be viewed below:
Event photos:
The Hayden V. White Distinguished Annual Lecture Series is made possible by the support of the Thomas H. and Josephine Baird Memorial Fund, an endowment that supports yearly lectures relevant to historical and cultural theory, and to ensure that Hayden White’s legacy and intellectual spirit is honored and sustained.