Osteuropa 4-6/2005 and NZ 40-41 (2-3/2005)

The official commemorative ceremonies celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of the end of World War II may be over, but the recent issues of Osteuropa and NZ will remain a point of reference for years to come. This magnificent compilation of articles on the "Gulfs of memory. Russia and Germany sixty years after the war" is the result of collaboration between Berlin-based Osteuropa and its Moscow partner NZ, and is published simultaneously in German and Russian.

Virtually every contribution is worth mentioning: Harald Welzer on the crucial distinction between history and memory; Maria Feretti on how, in Russia, memories of the war are intrinsically linked with Stalinism; Il'ya Kukulin's "The regulation of pain", which follows the development of war literature in Russia; and Volker Hage, who looks at German writers' treatment of the bombings of German cities in the final years of the war.

Dorothea Redepenning, in a wide-ranging comparative essay entitled, "Ricorda cosa ti hanno fatto in Auschwitz. Music against war and violence", looks at how western and eastern European composers have tried to express in their music the horrors of World War II and the Holocaust, and how the rigid dichotomy of "anti-heroic" dodecaphonic music in the West, and large triumphant works in the USSR, has slowly yielded to a more pluralist musical culture.

Two essays published in Osteuropa and NZ have been especially important for Eurozine's recent Focal Point "European histories" and can also be read in English: Lev Gudkov's "The fetters of victory. How the war provides Russia with its identity", and Andreas Langenohl's "State visits. Internationalized commemoration of World War II in Russia and Germany".

All in all, this joint issue of Osteuropa and NZ stands out for its varied and multifaceted attempt to bridge the "gulfs of memory".

The full table of contents of Osteuropa 4-6/2005.

The full table of contents of NZ 40-41 (2/2005).


Kulturos barai 4/2005

The Lithuanian journal Kulturos barai also features several articles on World War II. They include Vygantas Vareikis on the memory of World War II in Russia, Germany, and Lithuania, and Darius Juodis on the Stalinist and Brezhnevist writers who characterized all Soviet fighters as fearless and all Germans as stupid.

Further articles: Almantas Samalavicius disagrees with Samuel Huntington's Clash of Civilizations, and instead suggests a "dialogue of cultures"; and Immanuel Wallerstein comments on "Bush's geopolitical legacy".

The full table of contents of Kulturos barai 4/2005.


Passage 52

The spring issue of Passage is dedicated to children's literature. However, the approach of the Danish journal departs from the pedagogic and educational concerns that usually hamper discourse on this genre. In Passage, children's literature is read as literature. The editors lament in their introduction that the close historical connection of children's literature to pedagogics "means that, unlike other literary genres, it needs to be considerate [...] and this creates literary standards that have nothing to do with literary autonomy". Even today, when children's literature has been developed in so many different directions, and has transcended most boundaries, it is still not regarded as "proper" literature. Passage tries to change that.

Literary critic Lars Bukdahl's article "MORE CHILDREN ON ACID NOW" demonstrates this approach. Bukdahl establishes a personal canon of children's literature by focusing on several Danish authors who left the "normal" literary avant-garde scene in the 1970s to enter what he calls "the children's book avant-garde": Knud Holten, Louis Jensen, Johannes L. Madsen, to mention a few. The result is a literature of "gunpowder and acid".

Also look out for: Maria Nikolajeva's article "Voice, power, and gender in children's literature", in which she asks what happens when a male author uses a female narrator, or when adults write as if they were children. Max Ipsen and Rikke Finderup take up the issue of form and shape, pointing to the connection between Louis Jensen's "square stories" ("one of the most radical projects in Danish literature"), concrete poetry, and the all-important Per Højholt.

The full table of contents of Passage 52.


Nova Istra 4/2004

The Pula-based journal Nova Istra focuses on Croatian and European poetry and literature. Along with new poetry by the Zadar-poet Tomislav Marijan Bilosnic, there is a packed section on Antun Soljan, one of Croatia's most versatile writers of the twentieth century.

In an insightful review, Petar Vukovic draws attention to the cultural and linguistic challenges facing the Bunjevci, a group of Croats who have been living in Voivodina (Serbia and Montenegro) for centuries.

Nova Istra also publishes a Croatian translation of Bernhard Peters's "'Ach Europa': Questions about a European public space and ambiguities of the European project", a speech delivered in Tallinn at last year's Eurozine conference, The Republic of Letters? Cultural journals in a European public space. European transnational exchange is far from blossoming, argues Peters. The national discourses have proved remarkably resilient against attempts to create a European space. In addition, transatlantic communication between the US and individual European countries continues to dominate the media landscapes. What, he asks, does this mean for the future of the much debated European public space?

The full table of contents of Nova Istra 4/2004.


Ord&Bild 6/2004

Ukraine's "Orange Revolution" directed the world's attention to a nation formally dismissed as a Russian satellite state. The international press portrayed Victor Yushchenko's democratic challenge to the fraudulently elected Victor Yanukovych as the birth of Ukrainian independence. But is Ukrainian civil society as young as all that? In an essay in the Swedish journal Ord&Bild, Mykola Riabchuk gives a historical overview of Ukrainian relations with Russia, and argues that talk of an East-West divide along pro- and anti-Russian lines simplifies the reality of a culturally and ideologically eclectic nation.

Apart from Riabchuk's article (which can also be read in English in Eurozine), Ord&Bild publishes the first part of a long and brilliant essay by Michael Azar: "A barbarian in Beirut". Beirut, once the Paris of the Middle East, only to become a bombed-out shell, is again the focus of the world's attention. "A barbarian in Beirut" is a portrait of the Lebanese capital, but also a story about what holds a society together, and what tears it apart: the classes, the clans, the alliances, and the politics. Azar peels off layer after layer, until "Beirutization" turns out to be anything but a series of random events or sudden outbursts of intolerance.

This essay will be continued in the next issue of Ord&Bild; Eurozine hopes to soon be able to publish it in English translation.

The full table of contents of Ord&Bild 6/2004.


Mittelweg 36 2/2005

This year's second issue of the Hamburg journal Mittelweg 36 contains three articles on anti-Semitism. Klaus Holz looks at the ongoing debate and finds it to be based on two major questions: Does Islamic fundamentalism lead to a new kind of anti-Semitism? And, is anti-Semitism transforming into a new kind of anti-Zionism, which seeks to justify itself as a criticism of Israel? Holz argues that recent versions of anti-Semitism are not new. Rather, a process can be observed whereby various religious and political strains are ceasing to be discrete, as in past decades. Increasingly, there are striking similarities between anti-Semitic positions.

Werner Konitzer reflects on anti-Semitism and morality, while Ulrich Bielefeld argues that present-day anti-Semitism in Germany is partly linked to current international political conflicts, rather than to historical events. Bielefeld ties the phenomenon of Islamist anti-Semitism to the problems associated with Muslim immigrant minorities. He maintains that the outlines of a new climate of German discourse are slowly becoming perceptible. Against the backdrop of the Middle East conflict, Germans increasingly voice their criticism of the politics of the Israeli state (whether justified or not). Generally, this criticism is still voiced in private. Perhaps more significant is that, in this new climate, Germans can once again refer to "the Jews".

In the literary supplement, Mittelweg continues its series on Don Quixote by reprinting Karl Schmückle's "A Don Quixote for our times" ("Der aktuelle Don Quijote") from 1936. And finally from the "Chronicle of Protest": Wolfgang Kraushaar describes the events of June 1982, when Helmut Oxner, a 26-year-old Neo-Nazi, shot several people in Nuremberg.

The full table of contents of Mitteweg 36 2/2005.

This is only a selection of a few of the more than 50 Eurozine partners published in 32 countries. For current tables of contents, presentations, subscription, and contact details of all Eurozine partners, please see the partner section.

Published 2005-05-12

Original in English
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