Opening Fall 2016 Polymathic Pizza with Viet Thanh Nguyen

Community  with Viet Thanh Nguyen, Associate Professor of English                

Tuesday, September 13, 2016 5p at the Harman Acadmey, DML 241

“To be capable of seeing things from multiple points of view, to be capable of being sympathetic, not just with our friends but with our enemies, is perhaps not enough to prevent wars or to change the world, but it is certainly necessary if we want those things to happen.”   --Viet Thanh Nguyen

How might the idea of community be understood within an integrative framework, or even as a viable feature of the polymathic life?  Professor Viet Thanh Nguyen helps us explore community as polymathic through a discussion of his recent Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Sympathizer.  The story’s principle character is a Viet Cong spy, who under forced confession to another Vietnamese interrogator, provides the novel’s narrative arc.  Through his unnamed protagonist, Professor Nguyen articulates the historically silenced, albeit fractured and diverse, voices of the Vietnamese people concerning the Vietnam War and its aftermath.  Nguyen’s unique confessional literary formula allows for an unusual dialogue between and among the marginalized.  He artfully conveys through one voice, the varied feelings, memories, and historical interpretations of the war from Vietnamese points of view. Join Professor Nguyen in discussion of what community means for us today in our fractured and divided world.

to rsvp go to www.usc.edu/esvp and enter the code PIZZA0913