{"id":8499,"date":"2019-10-10T03:47:04","date_gmt":"2019-10-10T07:47:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/?p=8499"},"modified":"2020-01-30T19:16:03","modified_gmt":"2020-01-31T00:16:03","slug":"the-democracy-of-the-imagination-manifesto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/the-democracy-of-the-imagination-manifesto","title":{"rendered":"THE DEMOCRACY OF THE IMAGINATION MANIFESTO"},"content":{"rendered":"

PEN International was founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere, emphasize the role of literature in developing understanding, stand for freedom of expression and act as a powerful voice on behalf of writers harassed, silenced, imprisoned and sometimes killed for their views.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

THE DEMOCRACY OF THE IMAGINATION MANIFESTO<\/h4>\n

passed with unanimity
\nat the Assembly of Delegates of PEN International
\n85th World Congress
\nManila, Philippines
\nOctober 2, 2019<\/p>\n

*
\nPresented by Jennifer Clement, PEN International President<\/strong><\/p>\n

Per W\u00e4stberg<\/strong>, Emeritus PEN International President and Chair of the Nobel Prize for Literature
\nEric Lax<\/strong>, Vice President of PEN International
\nNayantara Sahgal<\/strong>, Vice President of PEN International
\nNgugi wa Thiong’o<\/strong>, Vice President of PEN International
\nPaul Muldoon<\/strong>, Board Member of PEN America<\/p>\n

THE DEMOCRACY OF THE IMAGINATION MANIFESTO<\/strong><\/p>\n

The opening of the PEN International Charter states that literature knows no frontiers. This speaks to both real and, no less importantly, those imagined.<\/p>\n

PEN stands against notions of national and cultural purity that seek to stop people from listening, reading and learning from each other. One of the most treacherous forms of censorship is self-censorship \u2014where walls are built around the imagination and often raised from fear of attack.<\/p>\n

PEN believes the imagination allows writers and readers to transcend their own place in the world to include the ideas of others. This place for some writers has been prison where the imagination has meant interior freedom and, often, survival.<\/p>\n

The imagination is the territory of all discovery\u00ad as ideas come into being as one creates them. It is often in the confluence of contradiction, found in metaphor and simile, where the most profound human experiences reside.<\/p>\n

For almost 100 years PEN has stood for freedom of expression. PEN also stands for, and believes in, the freedom of the empathetic imagination while recognizing that many have not been the ones to tell their own stories.<\/p>\n

PEN INTERNATIONAL UPHOLDS THE FOLLOWING PRINCIPLES:<\/strong>
\n\u2022We defend the imagination and believe it to be as free as dreams.
\n\u2022We recognize and seek to counter the limits faced by so many in telling their own stories.
\n\u2022We believe the imagination accesses all human experience, and reject restrictions of time, place, or origin.
\n\u2022We know attempts to control the imagination may lead to xenophobia, hatred and division.
\n\u2022Literature crosses all real and imagined frontiers and is always in the realm of the universal.<\/p>\n

Source: https:\/\/pen-international.org\/who-we-are\/manifestos\/the-democracy-of-the-imagination-manifesto<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PEN International was founded in London … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7672,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[2095,2096,352],"views":11802,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8499"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8499"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8500,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8499\/revisions\/8500"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}