Exhibition and Book Launch
Book Launch: Silence. A Literary History, (OUP 2026). Exhibition: Silences/Stille/Schweigen
Auf einen Blick
Virchowweg 16
10117 Berlin
Centre for British Studies
University of Oxford
Gesa Stedman
Beschreibung
Book Launch with Professor Dr. Kate McLoughlin, Linacre College, University of Oxford: Thursday, 9 April 2026 at 6:30 p.m. s.t.
(Doors open at 6.00 p.m.)
Oxford English Literature Professor Kate McLoughlin looks back over 12 centuries of English literature to uncover the power and possibilities of silence.
Her talk ranges from exile on icy seas described in Anglo Saxon poems to searches for silence in the modern age of pings. She includes blissful unions with the divine and the natural world, the hushes of intimacy, literary epics of grief, the failure of words in the face of war and silence as a form of protest. McLoughlin explores the ways in which authors create silence through words, including silence in Shakespeare and the work of medieval lyricists, who expressed complex theological notions through lullabies.
Kate McLoughlin is a professor in English literature at the University of Oxford. Her books include Authoring War: The Literary Representation of War from the Iliad to Iraq and Veteran Poetics: British Literature in the Age of Mass Warfare, 1790–2015 and, as editor, The Cambridge Companion to War Writing.
This event is a co-operation between the Centre for British Studies and the University of Oxford.
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Exhibition times: 10 - 12 April 2026 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday & Sunday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday.
Seating in the Hörsaalruine is limited.
Registration is necessary at: events.gbz☞ Bitte fügen Sie an dieser Stelle ein @ ein ☜hu-berlin☞ Bitte fügen Sie an dieser Stelle einen Punkt ein ☜de
Based on previous collaborations with Prof Kate McLoughlin, Dr Christina Kuhli (HU art collection) and Prof Gesa Stedman (GBZ) have co-curated an exhibition on silence/Stille/Schweigen, featuring works from HU's art collection, and contemporary British and Berlin-based artists, including Tom Hammick (GB) and Sylee Gore (Berlin). An art workshop and a creative writing workshop will take place on Saturday, 11 April (11am) as part of the exhibition, which will be opened by Prof McLoughlin's book launch and talk (9 April). All are welcome, but access is via the Charité museum which is recommended for people aged 16 or older.