LOGOS And another thing... PENmanship in Prague: Impressions of a first-timer Ian McGowan The Scottish P.E.N. Centre was founded in 1927 by Christopher Murray Grieve (1892-1978), better known as Hugh MacDiarmid, a poet, international­ ist and life-long advocate of a Scottish literary revival. As an inactive member of this Centre, 1 took the opportunity of the 61st P.E.N. World Congress in Prague in November 1994 to learn more about both P.E.N, and the East European Born in Glasgow and educated book world. What follows are selective impressions there and at Oxford, Ian of a complex event. My publisher friends often tell McGowan is Director of the me that they were overwhelmed on their first visit to Frankfurt. This was a similar experience. Centre for Publishing Studies at International P.E.N. (Poets and Play­ Stirling University. He has lec­ wrights, Editors and Essayists, Novelists) was tured in Japan, Australia, founded in England in 1921 with John Galsworthy Malaysia and North America and as President. It promotes cooperation, intemational has former students in publishing goodwill and mutual support among writers and translators and defends freedom of expression in in most parts of the world. A over 100 countries through its autonomous Centres. member of the Scottish Arts Many of the great literary figures of the 20th cen­ Council, Dr McGowan chairs its tury have been associated with P.E.N. The French Literature Committee and Grants Centre was set up by Anatole France. International Presidents have included H G Wells and Arthur to PubUshers Panel. He has writ­ Miller. F Sionil Jose (LOGOS 5/3) founded the ten about the book trade and Philippines Centre in 1958. In addition to its published a large literary antholo­ autonomous Centres, P.E.N, has a central secre­ gy, The Restoration and tariat in London under Alexandre Blokh. The cur­ rent International President is Ronald Harwood, Eighteenth Century, the playwright. Given P.E.N.'s aims, there was a peculiar symbolic significance in holding the Congress in a country with a distinguished literature in more than one language (Kafka heads the Prague authorship roll); a history of suppression of literature following the German and Soviet invasions; and a living sense of the crucial role of the author and the pro­ cess of disseminating ideas in defiance of the cen­ sors to keep alive a country's self-respect and desire for freedom. In a wonderful reversal of fortune, the former dissident writer Vaclav Havel is now Presi- 53 LOGOS 6/1 © WHURR PUBLISHERS 1995 McGowan dent of the Czech Republic, with his fellow-P.E.N. However regrettable, such disputes are member Vaclav Klaus as Prime Minister. openly recorded in the Congress papers. The ten­ Prague 1994 therefore offered incon­ sions in the writer's position in public life were gruities and ironies. One of the most beautiful and touched on in the opening speech by President historic city centres in Europe, rich in literary, musi­ Havel, attending his first ever Congress. No one cal and religious association, preserved, largely there had a better right than he to defend the unscathed by totalitarian invader or capitalist writer's duty to resensitize humanity to contempo­ developer, it is encircled by a drab concrete ring. rary ills, "to perceive far more profoundly than oth­ Official P.E.N, delegates were lodged in the ers the general context of things, to feel a general Congress venue, the largest hotel in Eastern Europe sense of responsibility for the world, and to articu­ and a sparkling American-style harbinger of pros­ late publicly this inner experience". Havel rejected perity. (Your correspondent stayed in a '60s con­ narrow specialization of roles. Movingly, he called crete tower at the end of the metro.) on writers to overcome their "essential aversion to The Congress, professionally administered politics" and to undertake the "public activity of by P.E.N, staff and local specialists, was obviously intellectuals and citizens, when they engage in pol­ regarded as a prestige event. It was given major cov­ itics in the broadest sense". erage in the Czech media. Financial and practical One of P.E.N.'s most important roles lies support came from various Czech ministries, local in monitoring freedom of expression, campaigning and transnational companies and international on behalf of victims of oppression and providing agencies. The character of P.E.N, came out most practical help where possible. Among the candidate clearly in the astonishing variety of the 500 partici­ Centres for election at Prague were Iranian Writers pants and the half as many journalists offering cov­ in Exile. What gives P.E.N, some authority is its erage. The first dozen names on the alphabetical list genuinely international constituency and the fact of participants included members from Benin, that it does not emphasize the commercial aspects Korea, UK, Belarussia, Bangladesh, Switzerland, necessarily addressed by authors' trade unions - the Norway, Brazil, Japan and Palestine. defence of copyright, terms of contract, literary The theme of the Congress was tolerance, earnings, etc. While these are seen by P.E.N, as and there was plenty of this in evidence, both in underpinning the writer's freedom, its main goals formal meetings and through the serendipity of are communication across national boundaries and informal encounters. The Assembly of Delegates, espousing the right to debate serious issues openly. nimbly chaired by Ronald Harwood, worked This theme is given practical expression in the through a substantial agenda of reports and resolu­ work of the Writers in Prison Committee (WPC) tions, not always easily grasped by the novice. The in recording, lobbying and giving aid. President previous year's Assembly at Santiago de Compostela Havel's transformation had recently removed him in northwest Spain had apparently been marked by from the Committee's casebook. The horrifying some non-fraternal exchanges between delegates statistics - fifteen writers and journalists killed in from fragments of the former Yugoslavia. Slovene one year in Algeria, forty detained in Ethiopia, P.E.N., demonstrating the difficulty of reconciling thirty-three in prison in China, torture reports from the writer's commitment to language and national Turkey - reveal ideological, religious and ethnic identity with respect for others' freedom of expres­ tensions within states that would prefer to offer the sion, reported on its humanitarian efforts for writers world an image of homogeneity. The good news - in Bosnia, especially Sarajevo. Croatian P.E.N, crit­ the much shorter list of prominent prisoners icized the selection of beneficiaries. The Slovenes released - owes at least something to P.E.N.'s hotly refuted the Croatians' criticism. This sort of appeals on behalf of writers who have expressed squabble is scarcely in the spirit of the P.E.N, char­ their dissent peacefully. Fulfilling the injunction of ter, which declares that "literature, national though Samuel Johnson, the epitome of the life of writing, it be in origin, knows no frontiers, and should who offered in his greatest poem The Vanity of remain common currency between nations in spite Human Wishes to "survey mankind from China to of political or international upheavals." Peru", the resolutions from P.E.N. Centres high- 54 LOGOS 5/1 ©WHURR PUBUSHERS 1996 .