BEGIN:VCALENDAR PRODID:-//Grails iCalendar plugin//NONSGML Grails iCalendar plugin//EN VERSION:2.0 CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260611T023123Z DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20130523T100000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20130525T180000 SUMMARY:The Art of the Impossible: Culture\, Philosophy and Dissent from Havel to the Present UID:20260615T171158Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@philevents-web-bd7db559-gt5qm TZID:Europe/London LOCATION:London\, United Kingdom DESCRIPTION:

&lsquo\;This\, then\, is Havel&rsquo\;s tragedy: his authentic ethical stance has become a \;moralising idiom cynically appropriated by the knaves of capitalism. His \;heroic insistence on doing the impossible has ended up serving those \;who &lsquo\;realistically&rsquo\; argue that any real change in today&rsquo\;s world is \;impossible.&rsquo\;  \;Slavoj Žižek

On 23 December 2011\, the funeral mass of Vá\;clav Havel was celebrated with \;a degree of ceremony that not only commemorated his personal achievement \;but also signalled the end of an era.  \;Havel&rsquo\;s death apparently confirmed \;the transformation of one of the most astonishing events in post-war \;Europe&mdash\;the collapse of Communism&mdash\;from living memory into complete \;historical narrative. Yet\, the dramatic story of 1970s and 80s dissidents \;and the path to 1989\, this story of private individuals helping to bring \;about what seemed impossible\, has assumed ever greater relevance to the \;present.

Today\, the structures that appeared to have triumphed in 1989\, and in what \;followed\, are now themselves the subjects of contestation in\, inter alia\, \;the Arab Spring\, China&rsquo\;s Charter 08\, Greek anti-austerity protests\, \;Wikileaks and pirate parties\, and the Occupy Movement.  \;Thus\, a
triumphalist narrative\, with its implied &lsquo\;they all lived happily ever \;after&rsquo\;\, cannot provide the end to the story. Rather than a closed \;chapter\, &lsquo\;East European dissidence&rsquo\; and its conception of politics as the \;art of the impossible appear an open book.

This conference seeks to identify the political\, cultural\, and \;philosophical questions that underlie &lsquo\;East European dissidence&rsquo\; and to \;consider their implications for dissent today.

Further inquiries can be addressed to the conference organizers\, Tim \;Beasley-Murray and Peter Zusi\, at \;ssees-artofimpossible@ucl.ac.uk.

Conference registration fee: £\;50 standard\, £\;30 students and other \;concessions\, free for University of London students.

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