国際ペン大会、２６年ぶりに日本で　高行健氏ら基調講演

2010年9月2日20時39分

国際ペン東京大会のイベント会場で、１９５７年の同大会に参加した作家らの芳名録を見る日本ペンクラブの阿刀田高会長（左）と浅田次郎専務理事＝２日午後、東京都新宿区

パレツキー氏作品など朗読　国際ペン東京大会フォーラム

2010年9月23日21時8分

現代の米国の不自由さを語るサラ・パレツキー氏＝東京都新宿区の早稲田大学大隈講堂

　「環境と文学」をテーマに、各国の文学者らが集まる「国際ペン東京大会」（２６日開幕）の文学フォーラムが２３日、東京都新宿区の早稲田大学で始まり、 米国の人気推理作家サラ・パレツキー氏が同時多発テロ後の社会環境について「ブログやテレビなどでは、真実に触れにくくなった。だからこそ、本質的な真実 を描けるフィクションが必要だ」と語った。

　文学フォーラムは各国の作家６人の作品を朗読する。高さ４．５メートル、幅１０メートルのスクリーンに映像を流し、楽器の生演奏などで演出。２３日は日 本ペンクラブ会長の阿刀田高氏の小説「闇彦」と、パレツキー氏のエッセー「沈黙の時代に書くということ」を、それぞれ元ＮＨＫの松平定知氏と山根基世氏が 読み上げた。

　朗読後に講演したパレツキー氏は「米国は愛国法によって令状もなく身柄を拘束されるなど、『不自由』な出来事が多く起きている」とし、その中で書く重要性を説いた。

　阿刀田氏は「死」を人間の最大の自然ととらえた「闇彦」について語り、「物語の原点は死者を考えること。死者の思い出を持つことが、ストーリーを愛することの原点にある」と話した。

　文学フォーラムは２５日まで。２４日は、ナイジェリア出身の若手作家チママンダ・ンゴズィ・アディーチェ氏「なにかが首のまわりに」を俳優の松たか子氏 が、中国の作家莫言氏の「牛」を講談師の神田松鯉氏が田中泯氏の踊りと共に朗読。２５日はアラブ人作家サルワ・アル・ネイミ氏「蜜の証拠」を俳優の吉行和 子氏が、英国移民のマリーナ・レビツカ氏「おっぱいとトラクター」を活動写真弁士の片岡一郎氏が朗読する。

Schedule and venue of the 76th International PEN Congress Tokyo 2010

Dear PEN colleagues and friends,

We are preparing the 76th International PEN Congress Tokyo Congress 2010.You're your travel arrangements, we would like to inform the date and the venue of the Congress beforehand.
Please come not only the Congress but also Literary Forum and Kyoto session.

Venue: Shinjuku Keio Plaza Hotel, Tokyo (for PEN congress)
Waseda University, Tokyo (for Literary Forum)

Schedule (tentative)

1 Literary Forum/Seminar September 23rd to September 30th
2 Opening Ceremony September 26th
3 International PEN Congress/Seminar September 27th to September 30th
4 Post congress Tour/Seminar in Kyoto October 1st to October 3rd

Further details of Congress will be sent through the PEN centers in April 2010.

February 22nd, 2010

Best regard,

Secretariat for the Congress
The Japan P.E.N Club

Our contact: info@japanpen.or.jp

●Year 2010 - International PEN Congress in Tokyo

Based on our long-held desire to stage the International PEN Congress in Tokyo, The Japan P.E.N.club took action to extend this invitation to the International PEN Secretariat (at London headquarters) and the PEN centres in each country. At the congress recently held in Bogotá, Colombia, our proposal was accepted, with the official decision being made to hold the 2010 congress in Tokyo (International PEN Congress Tokyo 2010) over a period of approximately one week in the end of-September.
This will be third time Tokyo has been host, the first two being 1957 (Yasunari Kawabata, chairman) and 1984 (Yasushi Inoue, chairman). The year 2010 will also be the 75th anniversary year of the founding of the Japan P.E.N. Club (Toson Shimazaki, founding chairman).

●The theme of International PEN Congress Tokyo 2010 - "Environment and Literature"

The theme for "International PEN Congress Tokyo 2010" is "Environment and Literature".
The topic of "the environment" is a wide one, however, and what we are envisioning is not limited to the global warming and environmental destruction problems that are currently the subject of worldwide debate. It goes without saying that many aspects of human birth, aging, sickness and death are intimately connected to the natural world. The actions of nature, from the miniscule elementary particle and gene level to the huge scale of the solar system and universe, exert tangible and intangible forces on the era and society as well as influencing the way people live and their ideas and literature. From a broad perspective, it could be said that the theme of "Environment and Literature" encompasses everything involving human beings.
At the root of the International PEN Congress Tokyo 2010 theme of "Environment and Literature" is a question: In what ways can literature express and portray the environment as something which exerts such a controlling influence on human life and circumstance?

●Assembly of Delegates of International PEN Congress

International PEN Congress normally comprises two parts: (1) the annual Assembly of Delegates with two representatives from each country over the world participated in the annual Assembly of Delegates as well as the committees' meetings.
We plan to hold the Assembly of Delegates at the Keio Plaza Hotel in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo.

●Literary Forum

Literary Forum covering literary topics and including a general audience While "literature and the environment" will be a common theme extending across both these two parts, we will be making a special effort to hold substantive Literary Forum activities.
For the Literary Forum activities, with the cooperation of Tokyo area universities such as Waseda University , we are arranging for the use of facilities worthy of an international event, and we plan to hold activities open not only to writers from Japan and abroad but also to literature readers and community residents.
We anticipate that during the congress period the Literary forum will be the subject of consideration in a variety of venues, including symposiums, lectures, public readings, video documentaries, etc.

●Congress organization

The International PEN Congress Tokyo 2010 Executive Committee is chaired by Japan P.E.N. Club president Takashi Atoda , the chief secretary for International Conferences is Japan P.E.N. Club senior managing director Jiro Asada, and the chief secretary for the Literary Forum is Japan P.E.N. Club managing director Shinobu Yoshioka.