In December 2001, the centennial of the first Nobel Prize was celebrated in Stockholm. To mark the occasion, the Swedish Academy organized a symposium on the theme of “Witness Literature”. Talks were given by speakers from Asia, Africa and Europe, including three Nobel laureates in literature: Nadine Gordimer, Kenzaburo Oe and Gao Xingjian.The main objective of the symposium was to examine the concept of witness literature and its relevance to contemporary literature. This concept is relatively new and has not yet been defined clearly by literary criticism and scholarship. The discussion primarily alternated between two aspects of the topic: the particular claim to truth that witness literature puts forward, and the process that leads from catastrophe to creativity and that turns the victim into a writing witness with the power to suspend forgetfulness and denial.This volume, edited by Horace Engdahl, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, brings together all the talks given at the symposium.Contents:Philomela's Tongue: Introductory Remarks on Witness Literature (H Engdahl)When We Don't Speak, We Become Unbearable, and When We Do, We Make Fools of Ourselves. Can Literature Bear Witness? (H Müller)The Freedom of Self-Definition (I Kertész)The Bedazzled Gaze: On Perspective and Paradoxes in Witness Literature (P England)On the Frontier (T G Ash)Of Tamarind and Cosmopolitanism! (N Farah)Cloned Eyes (L Rui)Witness: The Inward Testimony (N Gordimer)Elaborations of Testimony (K Oe)Literature as Testimony: The Search for Truth (X-J Gao)Readership: Graduate students and academics in literature, as well as lay people interested in literature.Key Features:Written by established scientists who are well-respected in their communitiesProvides an absorbing account of the cultural history of climateSocial contextualization of contemporary scientific knowledge about climate, and scientific and cultural construction of climate knowledge are discussed