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donate Abstracts for Lettre Internationale (Denmark) 13 (2006)
ORHAN PAMUK
Neighbourhoods
According to Orhan Pamuk, neighbourhood implies open-mindedness for neighbouring cultures, but at the same time it implies provincial mistrust. In this speech, Pamuk also claims that it is the cultural journal's responsibility to resist conformity.
STEFAN JONSSON
A caricature of reality
Critique of cultural issues is for the most part non-existent in Denmark and the public is obsessed with Islam. The writer, critic, and editor of the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, Stefan Jonsson, reviews a week of reading Danish newspapers.
JAN PHILIPP REEMTSMA
Must we respect religiosity?
Regarding beliefs of faith and secular societies' pride.
MONA SHEIKH
Can secularism be religious?
The term secularism is used by political and religious figures to help signify that politics and religion should be kept separate. But secularism is neither a synonymous nor a neutral term. On the contrary, it implies diverse ideas about values and coexistence.
Interview with KASPER BECH HOLTEN by ANITA BRASK RASMUSSEN
Airport operas
To be a cosmopolitan is a state of mind and not a question of where and how we travel physically. The stage and artistic director of the Royal Danish Opera, Kasper Bech Holten, often travels abroad and communicates globally through his operas.
MIWON KWON
Binding obligations
How do we decide on an artwork's status as art? And who has the right to decide the artwork's destiny when the artist has parted with it? Certificates, which explain such relations, play an increasingly important, but not always unambiguous part in the economical cycle of the artwork.
CLAIRE BISHOP
The social turn – Collaboration and its discontents
Is it enough that art focuses on social engagement that pays tribute to cooperation and coexistence with others, or should art first and foremost be recognised for its aesthetic categories? Should we combine ideas of aesthetics and ethics at all?
DIEDRICH DIEDERICHSEN
Aesthetic justice
Blurred definitions and limits of art necessitate a questioning of how we discuss contemporary art. The German art theorist Diedrich Diederichsen outlines a new art concept.
INA BLOM
Boundaries of style
Contemporary art moves across boundaries – it exists in the "grey zone", is inspired by design and architectural subjects, and makes use of everyday objects. In spite of the ordinariness of form and style and the distance from particularity in contemporary art, the experience of art is continuously aesthetic – it addresses our senses as well as our intellect.
KARL-MARKUS GAUß
Historical Hide
In Waldviertel, Austria, is a military training ground the size of Luxembourg. 42 villages were eliminated during World War II in order to make room for it. Heritage was ruined. A bloody history haunts the area.
LINDA GRANT
Sarut Bamoach – A psychical defect
What are the consequences of three years' compulsory military duty for the Israeli youth in a land marked by conflict and violence? The recipient of the Lettre Ulysses Award 2006, Linda Grant, makes an attempt to understand the people behind the young soldiers, their experiences and their hopes for the future.
AAGE BORCHGREVINK portrays ANNA POLITKOVSKAYA
"I'm a journalist, only a journalist"
On 7 October this year, unidentified perpetrators murdered Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya. Throughout many years she fought for freedom of speech and human rights, and for Chechnya. She was driven by the conviction that her work would make a difference.
MARC-CHRISTOPH WAGNER
In the shadow of Hitler
Ardent Nazi or agonizing isolation – Gunter Grass and Joachim Fest's memories from Nazi Germany describe two very different ways of how to relate to the incomprehensible. Individually they are fascinating, together they are excellent.
5 questions for KIRSTEN THORUP
Lettre asks writers, politicians, and others to comment on the spirit of our time. In this edition, Danish author Kirsten Thorup impales an undifferentiated public political discussion and a person-/celebrity-fixated culture.
Published 2006-12-01
Original in English
Contributed by Lettre Internationale, Denmark
© Lettre Internationale, Denmark
© Eurozine
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