Articles

New knowledge about the neurological effects of music coincides with revived musicological interest in the body. Does this mark a return to the Enlightenment view of music as a matter of the nervous system? A survey of modern musical aesthetics through the lens of medical history.

Speculation may not be the best approach in a trial, but it can be useful for making sense of seemingly nonsensical events happened the way they did. Our authors try their luck in explaining new authoritarianism, the loneliness of online socializing, and women’s advancement in politics.

In Polen hat sich nach dem Zusammenbruch der kommunistischen Volksrepublik wieder eine „rechte“ Literaturszene entwickelt. Diese Literatur ist Ausdruck einer politischen und ideologischen Polarisierung der Gesellschaft. Wie in der Zwischenkriegszeit ist das Phänomen vielfältig. Traditionalismus, Patriotismus, Katholizismus, Antikommunismus und Katastrophismus kennzeichnen die Haltung heutiger „rechter“ Autoren. Dazu kommt das Misstrauen gegen Liberalismus, Globalisierung und die Moderne. Die „rechte“ Literatur ist aus ihrer Nische herausgetreten, wird breiter rezipiert und erntet Anerkennung bei der Literaturkritik.

Media acceleration puts enormous emphasis on speed, creating a pressure on politics that the elaborate procedures of cross-party cooperation cannot withstand. Modelled after Roman democracy, modern liberal democracies may as well have an expiration date, George Blecher argues.

The classic liberal distinction between war and peace has expired. Markets have learnt the lesson that gut reactions matter, but political institutions of liberal democracy are still lagging behind. What we need is a politics of empathy, William Davies argues.

Rightwing literature reappeared in Poland after 1989, having been absent from cultural life during communism. Since 2010, political polarization has caused its significance and visibility to increase. But what defines rightwing literature in Poland? A typology of its motifs and genres, from anti-communism to anti-modernism, historical revisionism to sci-fi.

En esta conversación, Emmanuel Macron, Sigmar Gabriel y Jürgen Habermas debaten sobre la necesidad de una campaña positiva a favor de Europa, y defienden que el futuro de la Unión depende de una combinación de inversión y reformas.

The Orbán regime’s ‘war on gender’ and scapegoating of scholarly dissent rely on long-lasting popular animosity toward independent intellectuals. Unfortunate patters of academic withdrawal, dating back to state socialist times, make it even harder to resist populist pressure.

Louis-Ferdinand Céline based a literary reputation on transgression. He was a prototypical troll, contemptuous of the truth, indefatigable in saying the unsayable, and couching his hatred in irony. And like trolls, he poses a dilemma: engage or ignore?