Carolin Emcke: How We Desire

‘There is as much difference between us and ourselves,’ writes Carolin Emcke ‘as between us and others’.

Carolin Emcke is a celebrated philosopher and journalist from Germany, whose remarkable career has included stints reporting from conflict zones for Der Spiegel and lecturing in political theory at Yale.

How We Desire is the first of Emcke’s books to be translated into English. Part memoir, part philosophical treatise, the book seeks to examine the nature of desire and difference, shaking off fate-fixing norms and rigid identities and working towards a more radical and flexible idea of human sexuality. ‘What if, instead of discovering our sexuality only once, during puberty,’ she asks, ‘we discover it again later – and then again, after that?’

What, and who, do we want? What does it mean? How does it change? We’ll ask this formidable thinker in March.

Carolin Emcke’s visit is supported by Goethe Institut Australia.

Hares & Hyenas will be our bookseller for this event.