Articles

Speech held at the 17th European Meeting of Cultural journalsThe Republic of Letters? Cultural journals in a European public space
Tallinn, Estonia 14-17 May 2004

European transnational exchange is far from blossoming, argues Bernard Peters: The national public sphere has proved remarkably resilient against attempts to create a European space. In addition, transatlantic communication flows between North America and individual European countries continue to dominate the cultural and media landscape. What does this mean for the future of the much debated European public space?

Craig Calhoun argues that the self-constitution of Europe through public communication is an underestimated and neglected aspect of European integration. A functioning public discourse would not only be vital to the building of democratic European institutions, but in its ideal form the public sphere would shape and define the European integration project. Until now, the political and economic elites of Europe have failed to foster this 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, where potentially common values and ideas can be formed and transnational political institutions can find their legitimacy?

South Africa’s foremost satirical performance artist takes a look at the South African government’s treatment of AIDS.

The Bush administration’s record spending promises on combating Aids in Africa have pleased liberals and conservatives alike. But a closer look reveals that these programmes have less to do with a new era in US foreign aid but rather a strategic interest in diversifying its oil resources.

Along with India and China, Russia has the fastest growing HIV infection rate in the world. Yet there is no sex education in schools, no HIV/AIDS awareness programme and a profound reluctance to admit to the problem at official levels.

Freud’s idea for the psychoanalytic “couch” – the most potent symbol of Freudian psychoanalysis – stems from his interest in Turkey and his fascination with the divan, explains Sebnem Senyener.

Radislav Krstic, General of the Republika Srpska army and Deputy Commander of Drina Corps, was the first war criminal sentenced for genocide by the ICTY. He was sentenced to 46 years of prison for ordering the deaths of over seven thousand Muslim men were executed, in the UN safe area of Srebrenica, between 13 and 19 July 1995, while 30,000 people were forcibly deported. Slavenka Drakulic witnessed the trial and traces Krstic’s biography.

Our understanding of the field of translation studies has in the recent years taken on many more meanings and now encompasses spheres beyond the usual textual dimension: Translation today is as much about the translation of cultural, political, and historical contexts and concepts as it is about language. This focal point, which draws upon talks and lectures held at the 16th Meeting of Cultural Journals in Belgrade, includes articles on the recent developments and future trends of translation and new critical theory on translation, as well as texts that apply these concepts to case studies, for example, of Serbia and Turkey.

Hasan Bülent Kahraman charts the current trends that have changed and shaped the field of translation studies: Multiculturalism, studies of the subaltern, minority and feminist studies.

The field of translation studies has come a long way in the past two decades from the margins of the linguistics department to today’s central position in the field of cultural studies and critical theory. António Sousa Ribeiro traces how translation has become a fundamental and dominant metaphor for our time and how the act of translation has wider repercussions on our notions of multiculturalism, identity, and cultural practices. On the basis of this, Ribeiro sketches out how translation can provide for “mutual intelligibility without sacrificing difference in the interest of blind assimilation”.