Constance Debré on literary aesthetics

18.06.2025 / 19:00 – 21:00
With Constance Debré

The writer in conversation with Miryam Schellbach

What does it mean to capture an aesthetic in literature—not as ornament, but as a way of thinking, a method of structuring the world, a means of approaching truth through form? How can language—structured, selective—approach something essential about existence?

These are among the questions that French writer Constance Debré will explore in an evening dedicated to literary aesthetics. Constance Debré will spend the summer semester 2025 as Samuel Fischer Guest Professor at the Peter Szondi Institute of the FU Berlin. Debré first gained wide attention with Play Boy (2018), a provocative and sharply observant novel. In Love Me Tender (2020), she expanded her focus on themes of freedom and loss. Her most recent book, Nom (2022), continues her commitment to form and minimalism.

Critics have praised her voice for its unusual combination of austerity and emotional resonance—at times brutal in its directness, at others quietly lyrical. Topics such as motherhood, family, and sexuality appear in her writing not as subjects to be explored, but as part of the landscape. In conversation with Miryam Schellbach, editor and literary critic, Debré will reflect on the function of fiction, the demands of form, and the role of style as a mode of thought. The event will be held in English.

daadgalerie
Oranienstraße 161
Berlin

Free admission
Please register here

An event in cooperation with the Samuel Fischer Guest Professorship – a project by Holtzbrinck Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin, S. Fischer, and the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program.