How much of our sense of authenticity is molded by preconceptions often derived from bourgeois, Western-centered experiences? Tash Aw will examine this question in his inaugural lecture on October 28, 2025, at Freie Universität Berlin and discuss the extent to which the act of reading can reinforce an understanding of the truth as prescribed by dominant viewpoints. He will also address potential ways to disrupt such long‑entrenched perspectives in order to open up literature and make it a more inclusive space – truer in its complexity and, for that reason, more compelling.

About the Author

Tash Aw was born in Taipei in 1971, grew up in Malaysia, and now lives in Paris. His debut novel, The Harmony Silk Factory (2005), has been translated into twenty languages and won the Whitbread First Novel Award. His second novel, Map of the Invisible World (2009), tells the story of two brothers abandoned by their mother and adopted by different families in Indonesia and Malaysia. Subsequent publications include the novels Five Star Billionaire (2013) and We, the Survivors (2019), as well as the memoir Strangers on a Pier (2016). Aw’s most recent work, The South (2025), is a coming‑of‑age novel that explores the friendship and burgeoning desire between two teenage boys amid crumbling family structures and the local strain created by global crises. His books have been translated into twenty-three languages, and he has been long-listed three times for the Booker Prize.

Tash Aw Is the 53rd Samuel Fischer Visiting Professor

As part of the Samuel Fischer Visiting Professorship, Tash Aw will teach a seminar during the 2025/2026 winter semester. His course, “Fiction in a Time of Turbulence,” examines how authors from different periods have responded to historical upheavals.

The Peter Szondi Institute of Comparative Literature has awarded the Samuel Fischer Visiting Professorship for Literature regularly since 1998, bringing renowned literary figures to Freie Universität Berlin semester after semester. It is supported by Freie Universität Berlin, the German Academic Exchange Service’s Artists-in-Berlin Program, funded by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Research, Technology, and Space, as well as S. Fischer Verlag publishing house and Holtzbrinck Berlin – Inspire Together. Writers from diverse literary traditions and cultural backgrounds are invited to teach at the institute for a semester and engage in a critical reflection on literature from around the world.

Recently, two former Samuel Fischer Visiting Professors were recognized for their literary achievements with prestigious awards: Dorothee Elmiger (visiting professor, 2021/2022 winter semester) received the 2025 German Book Prize, and Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai (visiting professor, 2008 summer semester) received the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature.