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Articles published in Eurozine
So much Austria
Speculations on the invention of a country
Insecurity and the fear of being overlooked is what compels Austria to talk about itself incessantly. Two luxury volumes reveal to Wolfgang Müller-Funk what is unique about the symbolic construction of the Austrian nation: its foundation upon a chain of defeats. [more]
Tinplate and gilt
The memory landscape of the SFRY
Our view of the past is tarnished by our ancestors' suffering or success. Svjetlan Lacko Vidulic approaches post-Yugoslav memory via family history, on the premise that talking openly about inherited bias can break down fossilized patterns of thought and promote inter-memorial dialogue. [more]
Utopian failing
Two journal projects
Maurice Blanchot's journal "Revue Internationale" was an attempt at an engaged form of publishing in a world shaped by decolonization and bloc confrontation. Yet its internationalist ambitions proved to be its downfall, writes Roman Schmidt. [English version added] [more]
Glancing back (2009-2010)
Recalling childhood trips abroad, Slavenka Drakulic suspects Yugoslavians were corrupted by the freedom to travel. "My generation confused democratic freedom with the freedom to shop in the West. The wars that followed were the almost medieval retribution for that." [more]
How to become a real Muslim
The media has colluded with self-promoting but marginal Muslim clerics to create a cycle of self-reinforcing myths around the Mohammed cartoons. The fear of causing offence undermines progressive trends in Islam and strengthens the hand of religious bigots. [more]
If you want to change the world, you must change the economy
"Every day of crisis is a day of learning, a window of opportunity, but this window will get smaller and smaller unless rapid and fundamental changes take place in the economy." 95 year-old political economist Kurt Rothschild in interview with "Wespennest". [more]
Still not free
Why post-'89 history must go beyond self-diagnosis
The dissident generation of the 1970s and 1980s produced a body of work unprecedented in Czech history, says Martin Simecka. Yet it is precisely the monumentality of this generation's legacy that prevents the interpretation of the communist past going beyond self-diagnosis. [Swedish version added] [more]
China through Zhuangzi's third eye
Twenty years after Tiananmen, the country is both different and same
In the twenty years since the Tiananmen Square massacre on 4 June 1989, China has risen from the ashes by engaging with the West economically and by manufacturing patriotic consent. But how long can the "rising dragon" continue to be impervious to history? [more]
Competing, contesting, betting
Benchmarking as speculation
Competition, writes Peter Moeschl, cannot only be seen as a threat to community, but also as an emancipation of the individual, which adds to the development of community. Yet its German equivalent "Wettbewerb" not only implies competition, but also betting, and therefore speculation. [more]
Lucky that Silvio exists!
Italian society's soft spot for Berlusconi
"If I've been interested in political life of late, it's in order to go on working as a businessman," said Silvio Berlusconi in 1993. Since then, his motivations haven't changed, writes Jan Koneffke. Why don't the majority of Italians take offence at a politician who disregards democratic rules? [more]
Tales from the Wild East
Lack of comprehension for historical and present-day events on the Balkans has to do with the very different character of master narratives in East and West. If only the West would "try to adjust its horizon of expectation" to the Balkan writing, and not vice versa, urges Goran Stefanovski. [more]
Nowadays
On resignation
Attention has to be paid to the individual victims of a small minority in pursuit of limitless and obscene wealth and power, writes Giuliano Mesa. Resignation in the face of the dominance of economic logic must be resisted! [more]
The creativity fix
In Richard Florida's "creative city", the creative class dissolves the classical division between the productive bourgeoisie and the bohemian. But creativity strategies have been crafted to co-exist with urban socio-economic problems, not to solve them. [more]
Literary perspectives: Sweden
Beyond crime fiction, handbags and designer suits
Recent literary debates in Sweden have dwelled, among things, on authors' love lives and penchant for designer handbags. Yet there is more out there if one looks: Hans Koppel's satire of suburban manners, for example, or Magnus Hedlund's explorations of human perception. [Estonian version added] [more]
Literary perspectives: Northern Ireland
Shaking the hand of history
While the Northern Irish literary tradition is closely bound up with the experience of sectarian violence, contemporary Northern Irish writing defies the assumption that "the Troubles" are all there is to the country's literature. [more]
Beaches and graveyards
Europe's haunted borders
"It is more arduous to honour the memory of the nameless than the renowned." The epigram on Walter Benjamin's memorial in Portbou, Catalonia, leads Les Back to reflect on the fate of the African migrants found dead on the coasts of Spain today. [more]
What makes a biopolitical space?
A discussion with Toni Negri
"Soft" forms of activism that create urban collectivities on micro, neighbourhood levels only go so far, says Negri, who favours rupture and revolution over accumulation and gradual change. [more]
The re-transnationalization of literary criticism
Critical discussion of foreign literature serves as a source of information not only for readers but also for the "trade". When that discussion disappears or becomes one-sided, this has consequences for the literary institution as a whole. [Estonian version added] [more]
Literary perspectives: Estonia
Waiting for the Great Estonian Novel
While the Great Estonian Novel has yet to be written, the range of fiction in Estonia is wide enough to serve as an indicator of the post-communist country's hopes and fears, anxieties and obsessions. writes the editor of "Vikerkaar". [Russian version added] [more]
Capital climes
Today, an Indian child consumes one ninetieth of the energy of her American counterpart. Such comparisons discredit the consensus that it is simply the mass activity of "man" which is responsible for global warming. [more]
Sarajevo retro, or The Orient in the Occident
Bosnian Muslims, Bosniaks, or "Turks" are, despite their European origins, considered "foreign": how else can their demonization during the last war be explained? [more]
On the privileges of the literary critic
Literary lunches aside, what are the critic's privileges? According to Jörg Magenau, it's all about accumulating others' experiences, about "being in the world", about avoiding the media's barrage of facts. And about having lots of books... [more]
The abolition of poverty
Report from Bombay
Whoever serves in Bombay's city administration and uses the word "slum" simultaneously means "encroachment". The laager mentality of Bombay's rich has led to a social apartheid where slums are cleared to make way -- quite literally -- for golf courses. [more]
The Danube and the centre of the continent
Decoding the modern history of the Danube -- from nineteenth-century nationalism, through communism, to post-communism -- and how writers from Grillparzer to Handke have explored a "Danube identity". [more]
Against love
Seeking the literary traces of the Natascha Kampusch affair
"The birth of love out of the spirit of totalitarianism expressed itself in exemplary manner in the Kampusch abduction story. A person is shut in, all the others shut out -- that is the ideological core of romantic love." [more]
Phobocity
London and the War on Terror
In London post-7/7, the wail of police sirens has become the soundtrack of the "phobocity". But the phobocity is not created by the suicide bombers alone -- politicians and journalists also trade on fear. [more]
The Polish plumber and the image game
The Polish plumber is a cliché throughout Europe, which even the Polish tourist board has made use of. However, in the UK the joke veils a growing resentment towards workers from the new EU states. [more]
Simulated cities, sedated living
The shopping mall as paradigmatic site of lifestyle capitalism
If the imperative of consumer capitalism is "lead us into temptation", then the shopping mall is its cathedral. Increasingly, city centres -- or "brand zones" -- are adopting the mall aesthetic. [more]
On the Indian view of things
Adolf Holl in conversation with Sudhir Kakar
Indian pyschoanalyst and author Sudhir Kakar talks about the fluid ego, the female principle in religion, and globalization and religious fundamentalism in India today. [more]
Genuine versus clever
Migration and conservatism in Europe
In the run-up to elections in Austria, xenophobic sloganeering by the far-right is tolerated by centrist parties afraid to turn off floating voters. "In Austria, the rightwing margins occupy the centre far too often," writes Andreas Fanizadeh. [more]
Freedom of expression and its limits
The principle of absolute freedom of expression is always qualified by tacit agreements within societies on what can and cannot be said. [more]
The old "new clothes" of the French Republic
In defence of the "insignificant" rioters
It is possible that the "apolitical" youths of the banlieue have done more to set things in motion in France than thirty years of political posturing, says the director of French journal Multitudes. [more]
The social is not abstract
Josef Schützenhöfer's "Social Painting" and the provocation of the figurative
Residual authoritarianism and social inequality are both a target and a spur in the paintings of Josef Schützenhöfer. Drawing on (art) history and contemporary imagery, they articulate an original realist aesthetic. [more]
"From the standpoint of the many"
Brecht, the commune, and the multitude
Fifty years after the death of Bertolt Brecht, his play about the Paris Commune can be read as a parable about the "multitude". Jost Müller points to the topicality of an author whose theatre theory and practice have been proclaimed dead many times during the last thirty years. [more]
Welcome to the desert of the Real, part II
As natural and human disasters continue to jeopardize the cohesion of societies around the world, arguments challenging assumptions about "civilization" are as important as they are uncomfortable. [more]
Commission for European Standards: Literary
(Draft 1)
The novel is set to become the latest target of European bureaucracy, a leaked document reveals. [more]
"Europe" as that-which-is-not-yet
"If we understand the possible Europe as a mode of the real being of today's Europe, the question remains why one possibility becomes real and not others. Why do we have this Europe and not another?" [more]
Rainbow puddles on Park Lane
Following the trail of oil that runs through London's streets
From public transport to the Premier League, oil has left an indelible mark on the British capital. Written three months before the London bombings, this article is eerily premonitory. [more]
The Yukos affair
The Kremlin's renationalization of the Russian oil industry following the arrest of Mikhail Khodorkovsky does not augur well for western Europe. [more]
Time out of joint
Western dominance, Islamist terror, and the Arab imagination
Sadik J. Al-Azm's views on September 11 and the "clash" between East and West. There's more to it than just religion and spiritual values. [more]
"Death to the Enemies of the Revolution"
Death and the Left
Religion knows something about death. Is this true also of the so-called "political religions"? What type of relationship does the political Left have to death? [more]
Energizing the European public space
There is only one path open to meeting the challenge posed by a heterogeneous collective of nationally oriented viewers, listeners, and readers: a European public space spearheaded by already established national media. [more]
Invisible memorials
How does a city like Vienna commemorate Austria's national-socialist past? [more]
The rich, the beggar, and the poor
A balkan spaghetti-western
Nikola Mazdirov on the Balkan people torn between the temptations of the West and the reality of Balkan life. [more]
Literature in court: censorship in Germany
Is the dignity of the individual a more precious good than the general public's interest and the freedom of art? [more]
The leisure class and I
On the timeliness of Thorstein Veblen's "Theory of the Leisure Class". [more]
We are doing well
Europe's influence on my writing
What does Europe look like in the view of a leftist author, son of communist parents and victims of the Holocaust? [more]
Treachery, lies, and happiness
On psychology and metaphysics of the seducer
What is the nature of seduction? Is the seducer only doing harm and what does he or she really want? [more]
Horses in Trash Paradise
National assembly and americanisation
Peter Pilz with a harsh critique on Austrian parlamentarianism and politics. [more]
How do I construct my own enemy?
Small DIY-manual according to latest real-life experiences
Baier traces the American war-rhetoric against Iraq and lays bare how enemies are constructed. [more]
The story behind the story or: My dearest enemies - the Americans
Jan Koneffke on his personal ambivalence towards Americans. [more]
The magician as a model
Are Italians dreamers and big-mouths - thus fascinated by their prime minister Silvio Berlusconi? Jan Konfeffke reflects upon these questions. [more]
North-American Eastern Bloc
Why does the mayor of Montréal want to call a Christmas tree a "festivity tree"? Lothar Baier discovers a contemporary parallel of the language regulations applied in GDR. [more]
European Forms of Belonging: A View from Slovenia
As Slovenia is emerging from its first decade of independence, Debeljak debates what kind of role the new European member should play within the EU. [more]
Heroes, leaders, demagogues
Our personal heroes and why we can not live without them. [more]
Mandela: Humanitarian Hero
Nelson Mandela has been one of the few contemporary heroes whose reputation and idolized status has always remained intact. Jyoti Mistry asks why. [more]
New anti-Semitism and old delusions
Is the new wave of anti-Semitism in Europe a serious threat or largely unfounded hysteria? [more]
Unspeakable Sept 11
Taboos and Clichés
After September 11, the weight of public opinion kept different, not just dissenting, ideas at bay. The authors document here possible interpretations of what happened which never got a public hearing. [more]
Americans at millennium's end
How We Learned to Love the Media and Forget Who We Are
.. [more]
Articles published in the partner section
Antisemitismus im Gepäck
Der Antisemitismus kehrt in West- und Osteuropa in unterschiedlichen Formen zurück. Wie es dazu kommen konnte und worin die Unterschiede zwischen Ost und West bestehen, untersucht György Dalos in diesem Artikel. [more]
Poesie ist Sprache zum Quadrat
Erich Klein und Uldis Tirons im Gespräch mit Tomas Venclova
Der litauische Dichter Tomas Venclova über sein Land, Kriege, Ödipus und die Poesie. [more]
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