Abdulrazak Gurnah: Living together | 32. Hermann Staudinger Lecture

“Your invitation was to say: this is a series of lectures which usually are given by an academic in the natural sciences – and we would like to make a departure from this, and have somebody talk about literature. Well, that sort of invitation was tempting. So eventually, when it was possible, I said: Yes, okay, I’ll come and do it.”

With these words, Abdulrazak Gurnah opened a new chapter in the Hermann Staudinger Lecture Series on 24 June 2025 at the University of Freiburg. The Lecture is hosted by the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS). Until then, this prestigious series had featured 31 Nobel Laureates in Physiology or Medicine, Chemistry, and Physics. Gurnah was the first Nobel Prize winner in Literature to deliver this lecture.

A Lecture on “Living Together” What does it mean to live together – historically, literarily, and as humans? In this powerful talk, Gurnah reflects on the idea that togetherness implies mutuality. Does coexistence start from the assumption that we are the norm, and others must adapt? Or can we imagine forms of living that embrace difference? Drawing on Shakespeare’s Othello and a long literary tradition that renders the “stranger” as threatening or unplaceable, Gurnah explores how writing reflects and shapes societal ambivalence toward outsiders – from the early modern era through empire to postcolonial migration.