Write an essay and take part in the international arts fiesta!!!
Every year, the Thomas Mann Festival chooses themes that aim to reflect universally sensitive issues of the present. The theme of this year’s festival is “Time is out of joint. Faith”.
Shakespeare’s Hamlet, speaking of the world around him, says that “time is out of joint”. This description, according to Dr Irena Vaišvilaitė, Chair of the Festival’s curatorial committee, is in line with our current feeling that we are living in the face of a great crisis – a radical and unpredictable transformation that is disrupting and denying what seemed solid, universally accepted and secure. Such times leave people face to face with powerful forces that defy them, and even more so, forces that are beyond their comprehension, and that demand personal choices as social norms and values no longer bind society.
Humanity and the attitudes that affirm and represent the value of the human person have been identified by classical European culture as virtues This year’s festival will focus on Faith.
Faith is often associated with religion, but outside of religious thinking it may not be called a virtue, but a psychological or emotional posture, sometimes a survival strategy. Faith can be seen as a trust, conviction or even a vague, gut instinct on which a person relies to make existential choices in the face of an opaque, threatening and/or hopeless future.
For the ninth year, the Thomas Mann Festival has also launched a student essay competition. We are looking forward to your essays that address issues related to the theme of the festival from a personal perspective.
The authors of the three selected essays will stay in Nida during the festival (paid travel in Lithuania and 3 days’ accommodation), participate in essay readings and other festival events.
To find out what makes the essay genre special and how it differs from an academic report or autobiographical prose, you can turn to T. Mann’s own essays. If you don’t read German, you can read R. Rastauskas, G. Beresnevičius, Cz. Milosz, Sontag, etc., as well as essays by previous competition winners, which can be found on the festival website www.mann.ltin the news section.
COMPETITION CONDITIONS:
– The competition is open to students of higher education institutions and colleges. Participation is limited to two consecutive years.
– Participants must submit an essay written in Lithuanian on the theme of the festival. The essay must be between 1300 and 2300 words (4-8 pages), Word format. Essays that do not meet the requirements will not be evaluated.
-Send your texts to mann@mann.lt by 02 June. Please indicate where and what you are studying.
– The entries will be evaluated by a three-person jury. The results of the competition will be published on the Thomas Mann Festival website www.mann.lt on 09 June with the three shortlisted essayists.
– For more information, please contact: mann@mann.lt
Organiser:
Thomas Mann Cultural Centre
Project partners:
Neringa Museums
Goethe-Institut Vilnius