Feed
Changing places (What's normal, anyway?)
20th European Meeting of Cultural Journals, Sibiu, 21-24 September 2007
))
Conference The "revolution to normality" was a crucial metaphor of 1989 and beyond. Yet, as speakers at the 2007 Eurozine conference pointed out, the slogan bears more emotive force than conceptual clarity. Today's eastern Europe is a changing place; traditionally, too, it has produced émigré writers who "changed place". Where better than Sibiu, Romania, to discuss "writing in exile?" [ more ]
opening address
Normality or normalities?
From one transition to the next
What's normal, anyway? For eastern Europeans, the myth of a free and prosperous West, of western normality, has been replaced by the observation of normalities, writes Mircea Vasilescu. Having joined the EU, Romanians are discovering that the West has problems by no means as exotic as they once believed. [Turkish version added] [ more ]
Normality: The obscure object of desire?
The oxymoron of normality
Normality: The obscure object of desire? "Normality" has been close to the hearts of eastern Europeans during transition. Yet a comparative history of the concept in eastern and western Europe reveals meanings that are multiple, changeable, even oxymoronic. [ more ]
Practising owning and fearing losing
Normality as materiality
Normality: The obscure object of desire? Transitional narratives of "then and now" omit a central attribute of "normality" that existed during socialism: materiality. It was eastern Europeans' experience of being owners and makers of things that has ensured the continuity of experience. [ more ]
Abnormals of all nations, unite!
On the exceptionality of political liberty
Normality: The obscure object of desire? Can democratic constitutions be called "normal"? Not according to political philosophers from the classical period to the nineteenth century. Today, the ubiquitous misuse of democratic institutions renders the exemplary constitution as abnormal as ever. [ more ]
Writing in Exile
Anyone at home?
In pursuit of one's own shadow
Writing in exile Zinovy Zinik traces the history of the shadow as metaphor for exile through Evgeni Shwartz's play "The Shadow" back to earlier fables by Hans Christian Andersen and Adelbert von Chamisso. The sum effect: a web of émigré biographies and fictions spanning two centuries. [Estonian version added] [ more ]
A journey without maps
Writing in exile Chenjerai Hove left Zimbabwe after falling foul of the Mugabe government. Here he recalls two incidents typical of the censorship that forced him into internal exile; and how, in exile outside his home country, he discovered new creative perspectives. [ more ]
Being inside and outside simultaneously
Exile, literature, and the postcolony: On Assia Djebar
Writing in exile The writing of Assia Djebar turns the tables on the postcolonist, so that the question now is not, "Can the subaltern speak and write?", but "Can the non-subaltern listen and read?" [ more ]
Closing speech
Bathroom tales
How we mistook normality for paradise
What's normal, anyway? The shortage of toilet paper alone may not have brought down communism, but it's an apt metaphor for a system unable to fulfil people's basic needs. Although Slavenka Drakulic's bathroom is better stocked these days, she's still prone to doubt. Was the normality she and her fellow eastern Europeans longed for just another false paradise? [Turkish version added] [ more ]
More focal points
The city as stage for social upheaval
From the western European city to the Third World megacity, one is able to observe how a single principle asserts itself in the social structure of the urban space. That principle privatization is geared towards the concentration of wealth and assets on an increasingly global scale, a manoeuvre its beneficiaries seek to naturalize. [ more ]
Shared space, divided society
Migration is part of modern society, meaning more and more people of different ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds live together in Europe. The multitude of perspectives and experiences represents an enormous resource, but as cultural conflicts inherent in today's urban societies become visible, doubts are also raised about the value of diversity. [ more ]
Changing Europe
As political Europe turns 50, the questions about its future are as open as ever. A special focus featuring some of Eurozine's most outstanding contributions on the European project: From analyses of the current crisis to a hilarious parody of Brussels' literary ambitions. [ more ]
Post-secular Europe?
Is religion a public or a private matter? Can there be such a thing as a European Islam? If so, what characterizes it? What role can religion – or religions – play when it comes to the emergence of a European solidarity? [ more ]
European histories: Towards a grand narrative?
In order for there to be solidarity within the enlarged EU, it will be necessary to develop a broader historical consciousness that includes both western and eastern experiences. [ more ]
Europe talks to Europe: Towards a European public sphere?
The European integration project has made the discussion about transnational spaces for cultural and political debate acute. Can there at all be a common Europe without a pan-European public sphere? [ more ]
Politics of border making and (cross-)border identities
Have borders become irrelevant with the project of a united Europe? No, just the opposite. On the dilemmas of border building and cross-border cooperation in the EU and its neighbourhood. [ more ]
Freedom of speech and the Danish cartoon controversy
Free speech is a fundamental human right and a central tenet of democracy. Or is it? Reactions to the Danish cartoon controversy show that liberals are re-evaluating what the right to free speech entails. [ more ]
Politics of translation
Translation today is as much about the translation of cultural, political, and historical contexts and concepts as it is about language. [ more ]
Conferences
Friend and foe. Shared space, divided society
The 19th European Meeting of Cultural Journals
London, 27-30 October 2006
Speakers at the 19th European Meeting of Cultural Journals opened up the discussion on cultural diversity in two directions: first, as it is experienced in the physical urban space, and second, as it is reflected in the mirror of the media. [ more ]
Neighbourhoods
The 18th European Meeting of Cultural Journals
Istanbul, 4-7 November 2005
Contributions on the notion of neighbourhood and the Turkey-Europe question from a range of intellectual and geographic perspectives. [ more ]