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1. ARTICLE OF THE MONTH: HISTORICAL MYTHS NEW AND OLD
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Eurozine reopens the debate on "European histories", begun in May on the sixtieth anniversary celebrations of the end of WWII. Isolde Charim argues that the prevailing view that war has been continued through the means of commemoration conceals a new myth in the making.

The celebrations, and the differences in national commemoration culture they made apparent, prompted arguments that eastern Europe's experiences of WWII and its aftermath have been stifled by the dominant discourse of the West. Polish journalist Adam Krzeminski, in his widely noted essay "As many wars as nations", writes:

"The year 1989 has still not yet imprinted itself on the awareness of western European societies. It has not been accepted as an inseparable part of the common European heritage, just as the war experience of Poland and the Baltic countries, not to mention Ukraine, has never been accepted within European historical awareness."

Harvard historian Timothy Snyder takes a similar line. In his Eurozine essay "Balancing the books", he argues that European solidarity depends on understanding that "the centre of the suffering in World War II was in the East rather than the West; and that for four decades, eastern Europeans had to experience communist subjugation rather than European integration."

Charim responds that this position implicitly transforms the memory of the Holocaust from "binding principle" to "founding myth": "[Krzeminski and Snyder] depart from the view that the role of the victim between 1939 and 1945 is defined unequivocally [...] On the other hand, the distrust of the European politics of commemoration, which is evaluated as a new hegemonic project, becomes apparent."

According to Charim, "liberation from the divisive narratives took place long ago." She goes further, arguing that it is not that national myths are suppressed, but that a new myth is emerging: one of individual victimhood divorced from political context:

"[...] the personal is at the same time also an abstraction: abandoning all more precise definitions, it short-circuits the experiences of the individual directly with general human suffering, in a newly defined, universal concept of victimhood. Thus an entirely new victim myth forms, one which fits seamlessly into the current discussion of the politics of commemoration."

The article is available in English and German at:

>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-09-30-charim-en.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-09-30-charim-de.html

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2. NEW EUROZINE WEBSITE
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As of 3 October, Eurozine's new, easy to navigate and reader-friendly site is available online at www.eurozine.com.

The new website makes Eurozine's double character clearly visible: the independent netmagazine Eurozine, where the most important articles on politics, literature, and culture from all over Europe are published; and Eurozine, the network of Europe's leading cultural journals.

The new website offers many new features: A "Latest Issues" section on the starting page gives an overview of what's new from Eurozine's partners. In the "My Eurozine" section, you can keep up to date via the RSS-Feed and can subscribe to the Newsletter and Eurozine Review.

Also brand new to the site is the "Eurozine Gallery", offering for the first time a platform for the art journals in the network. This month's exhibition, entitled "Airbag", is a series of photographs by Romanian artist and photographer Mircea Stanescu, editor of the Romanian literary and art journal "Euphorion". Commenting on Stanescu's enigmatic images of the everyday, Hans Rainer Sepp writes: "Anyone travelling irony's winding path can escape the irreal, as long as they take an airbag for protection."

All this and more is now available at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/

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3. NEW ARTICLES
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Marius Ivaskevicius
MY SCANDINAVIA
The first part of the Lithuanian novelist's homage to a part of the world that until the 1990s lay beyond reach across the Baltic Straits. Here, he contemplates latter-day Vikings (they play jazz), and why Lithuanians don't like getting their feet wet.

This article is available in English, Hungarian, and Lithuanian at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-03-ivaskevicius-en.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-03-ivaskevicius-hu.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-03-ivaskevicius-lt.html

Bernard Magnier
THE PRESENCE OF AFRICAN LITERATURE: THE EVOLUTION OF LITERARY CRITICISM, PUBLISHING, AND READERSHIP
Africa’s growing role in western European culture is reflected in the increasing interest in its literature. Soon Kourouma will be placed between Kafka and Kundera.

This article is available in English and French at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-03-magnier-en.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-03-magnier-fr.html

Georges Niangoran Bouah
LEAVE US ALONE!
"If anyone holds us back, makes it impossible for us to move forward, it must be Europe, as has been the case ever since slavery." A transcription of an oral polemic.

This article is available in French at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-03-niangoranbouah-fr.html

Fahrudin Novalic
THE SREBRENICA REGION: WAITING FOR ITS SAVIOURS EVEN IN PEACE
Ten years after the Srebrenica massacre, many returnees to the region are living in conditions belonging to a century ago. The Croatian government, which during the conflict pursued a policy of appeasement with the Serbs, has a major stake in the responsibility to the region, as does the European and international political community.

This article is available in English and Croatian at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-03-novalic-en.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-07-28-novalic-hr.html

Hans Rainer Sepp
IN THE HEART OF ROMANIA: MIRCEA STANESCU'S PHOTO SERIES "AIRBAG"
"Anyone travelling irony's winding path can escape the irreal, as long as they take an airbag for protection." Allusion and occlusion in images of the Romanian everyday.

This article is available in English and German at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-03-sepp-en.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-03-sepp-de.html

György Spiró
COMMISSION FOR EUROPEAN STANDARDS: LITERARY (DRAFT 1)
The novel is set to become the latest target of European bureaucracy, a leaked document reveals.

This article is available in English at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-03-spiro-en.html

Gerd Hankel
WHAT DOES GENOCIDE ACTUALLY MEAN? THOUGHTS ON A PROBLEMATIC CONCEPT
Genocide as defined by international justice polarizes victims and perpetrators. In Rwanda, crimes were committed by Tutsis and Hutus; yet only the former are deemed victims. Does the legal definition of genocide play into the hands of power?

This article is available in German at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-09-29-hankel-de.html

Andrew Wilson
HOW TO BECOME A NATIONALIST
From hard-line Soviet to touchy-feely populist, Belarusian president Lukashenko has ploughed an erratic political course. If Russian subsidies continue to fall, his nationalism might turn out to be genuine.

This article is available in English at:
>> http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-09-28-wilson-en.html

Berthold Vogel
ALIGNING THE SOCIAL: COMMENTS ON AN ONGOING DEBATE
Demonized as "social bureaucracy" or used as a bulwark against global capitalism: what the modern welfare state is lacking is intellectual defence. Two recent studies fill the gap.

This article is available in German at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-09-27-vogel-de.html

Giedre Jankeviciute
THE ART CRITIC AS ART HISTORIAN AND SOCIOLOGIST: THE LITHUANIAN EXPERIENCE
Where does the art critic fit in the current "crisis of criticism"? A look at the situation in Lithuania as a model for worldwide trends in art criticism.

This article is available in English at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-09-26-jankeviciute-en.html

Hans-Christian Dany
THE END OF THE MISERABLE QUEST FOR THE SELF: BRAIN RESEARCH, DETERMINISM, AND NEW PROMISES OF SALVATION
Ten years ago, the Russian futurologist Leo Nefiodov predicted that the health industry would take over from information technology as a motor for growth. People started listening more to Nefiodov when the "New Economy" bubble burst.

This article is available in English and German at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-09-23-dany-en.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-09-23-dany-de.html

Augusta Conchiglia
MUGABE'S IRON HAND: ZIMBABWE'S GOVERNMENT FIGHTS HOMELESSNESS BY TEARING DOWN HOUSES
"Operation cleanup", begun in Zimbabwe in April 2005, is forcing hut-dwellers to dismantle their homes; the UN estimates around 2.4 million people have been affected so far. The pretext is urban renewal, but the real reasons are likely to be political: land will be re-allocated to Mugabe supporters in order to pre-empt a popular revolt.

This article is available in German at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-09-21-conchiglia-de.html

Seyla Benhabib, Giancarlo Bosetti
BELIEFS IN THE US. BETWEEN NEW FEARS AND OLD RESPONSES: "RESET" INTERVIEW WITH SEYLA BENHABIB
On the differing roles of religion in the public sphere in the US and Europe: "Have you ever heard the German chancellor say 'God bless Germany'?"

This article is available in English and Italian at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-09-19-benhabib-en.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-09-19-benhabib-it.html

Andreas Zumach
THE REFORM IS NOT TAKING PLACE
US ambassador Bolton's amendments to the UN reform draft completely removed the millennium development goals. Now, other nations are withdrawing their support for the document. An overview.

This article is available in German at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-09-16-zumach-de.html

Alfred J. Noll
"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?"

This article is available in German at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-09-15-noll-de.html

Mattias Martinson
THEOLOGY OF TIDAL WAVES: A POST-HUMANIST INTERPRETATION
The tsunami disaster in southeast Asia in December 2004 prompted a leading Swedish political scientist to make a public return to the Christian Church. Why are the humanities no longer able to accommodate mass suffering?

This article is available in English and Swedish at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-09-14-martinson-en.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-09-14-martinson-sv.html

Mathias Greffrath
THE YEARS THEREAFTER: THE LEFT BEYOND SCHRÖDER, FISCHER, AND LAFONTAINE
The general election in Germany will decide the future of a fractious Left. A review of the last twenty-five years of German Social Democracy, and the prospects of a "Grand European Left".

This article is available in German at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-09-13-greffrath-de.html

E. Efe Çakmak, Jack Goody
MYTH, WORD, AND WRITING: AN INTERVIEW WITH JACK GOODY
On structuralist approaches to myth-making in oral cultures; the pitfalls of biologistic theories of language development; and how the difference between "naming" and "discovering" affects an understanding of western ideology.

This article is available in English and Turkish at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-09-12-cakmakgoody-en.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-09-12-cakmakgoody-tr.html

Krystian Woznicki
ISLANDS IN THE NET: FROM NON-PLACES TO RECONQUERED ANCHORAGES OF THE AVANT-GARDE
With the spread of the Internet, utopia was given a location in cyberspace. It was now a question of exploring, surveying, and settling this new continent.

This article is available in English and German at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-09-09-woznicki-en.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-09-09-woznicki-de.html

Carl Henrik Fredriksson
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.

This article is now available in Estonian as well as in English, German, Italian, Macedonian, Swedish, and Turkish at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-09-08-fredriksson-et.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-08-12-fredriksson-mk.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-01-19-fredriksson-tr.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2004-12-16-fredriksson-de.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2004-06-16-fredriksson-it.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2004-05-13-fredriksson-sv.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2004-05-13-fredriksson-en.html

Thierry Chervel
EUROPE LOSES GROUND: CULTURAL MEDIA FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE INTERNET
European newspapers must finally pay attention to the power of the Internet.

This article is now available in Estonian as well as in Bulgarian, English, Italian, and Macedonian at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-09-08-chervel-et.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-08-12-chervel-mk.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2004-09-20-chervel-bg.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2004-09-07-chervel-it.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2004-06-22-chervel-en.html

Bernhard Peters
"ACH EUROPA": QUESTIONS ABOUT A EUROPEAN PUBLIC SPACE AND AMBIGUITIES OF THE EUROPEAN PROJECT
How likely is the emergence of a European public sphere?

This article is now available in Estonian as well as in Croatian, English, Italian, and Macedonian at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-09-08-peters-et.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-08-12-peters-mk.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2004-09-07-peters-hr.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2004-09-07-peters-it.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2004-06-21-peters-en.html

Olivier Blondeau
HACKTIVISM. STREET PROTESTS, POLITICS, AND MOBILITY: A STUDY OF ACTIVIST USES OF SYNDICATION
On reappropriating the streets as a space of action and protest using cell phones, wireless internet connectivity, and other new media phenomena.

This article is now available in Norwegian as well as in English and French at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-09-07-blondeau-no.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-07-19-blondeau-en.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-07-19-blondeau-fr.html

Obrad Savic
SREBRENICA: BETWEEN DENIAL AND RECOGNITION
Recent footage showing murders taking place at Srebrenica has proved a catalyst for a change in the attitudes of the Serbian public towards Serbian war crimes.

This article is now available in Italian as well as in English at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-09-05-savic-it.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-07-08-savic-en.html

Erica Johnson Debeljak
AFTER THE SIEGE
A visit to Sarajevo reveals that the heroes of the siege from 1992 to 1995 have yet to be rewarded with ordinary life.

This article is available in English and Slovenian at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-09-02-johnsondebeljak-en.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-09-02-johnsondebeljak-sl.html