----------------------------------------------------------- EUROZINE NEWSLETTER 03.2010-----------------------------------------------------------
1. Article of the month: Sworn virgin 2. Anna Meyer in the Eurozine Gallery 3. New Eurozine partner: Sarajevo Notebook 4. New Eurozine partner: Dziejaslou 5. Europe talks to Europe debate in Bucharest 6. Snyder article translated into 10 languages 7. New articles
----------------------------------------------------------- 1. ARTICLE OF THE MONTH: SWORN VIRGIN----------------------------------------------------------- The fictional narrator of Kinga Kali's short story has been forced by her father to become a "sworn virgin". Her clan lives according to the Kanun, the archaic Albanian legal code notorious for its blood feuds. In the absence of male children, only a sworn virgin can salvage the family honour.
She must, "live as a man, she must wear men's clothes, have her hair cut short like a man, and must adopt a bearing very different from her humble girl companions; also, she must never come to know love, either first hand or otherwise, neither as a man nor as a woman. But by way of compensation she can drink with the men, but they never ask for her opinion, for she's just a woman, after all, even if she's got a gun slung over her shoulder."
So she finds herself caught between two repressive systems: a cruel and backward patriarchy on one hand, communism on the other. The authorities are trying to stamp out the Kanun, and along with it traditional practices and the consolations of religion:
"But my father was a great subversive, he spent practically all his time engaging in blood feuds and playing tavli and dice, though he also worked very hard, of course; he vilified the regime, and even prayed [...]. But prayer did not prevent my father from beating the family to a pulp now and then, the four women sent by fate to try him, as he used to grieve in his drunken sorrow.
She flees to the Bosnian city of Tuzla, the epitome of urban modernity, suffering further ordeals along the way. Yet what appears to be divine intervention inspires confidence that she will reach her destination, where she will become "a respected woman and free, and never again a sworn virgin".
"Sworn Virgin" was first published in Hungarian in Magyar Lettre Internationale and has been translated for Eurozine by Judith Sollosy.
Kinga Kali Sworn virgin
This article is available in English and Hungarian: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-02-19-kali-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-02-19-kali-hu.html
----------------------------------------------------------- 2. ANNA MEYER IN THE EUROZINE GALLERY----------------------------------------------------------- In cooperation with "Polar", the Eurozine Gallery presents Anna Meyer's series of paintings "Heisszeit", a powerful response to ecological and economic crisis and a "call for art once again to be negotiated politically", writes critic and curator Maren Lübbke-Tidow:
"Anna Meyer not only seeks to provoke new ways of seeing, but also explores a notion of extended painting, one that could be called anarchic, since it utterly rejects the fetishized or auratic reception of painting. This attitude seems compelling seen against what and whom Anna Meyer depicts in her recent paintings. These are the losers of globalization, people who sell their humble possessions at markets; who experience the climate catastrophe at first hand, who wade through the filth, coming away with no more than their own lives."
View Heisszeit by Anna Meyer: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-03-02-gallery_meyer-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-03-02-tidow-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/authors/luebbke-tidow.html
http://www.eurozine.com/comp/Gallery.html
----------------------------------------------------------- 3. NEW EUROZINE PARTNER: SARAJEVO NOTEBOOK----------------------------------------------------------- Founded in 2002 on the initiative of a group of prominent intellectuals and public activists from throughout the former Yugoslavia, "Sarajevo Notebook" is an independent journal whose aim is to re-establish lines of communication between regional and ethnic communities in the Balkans, and hence to contribute to reconciliation in the region. Writing in the current issue, EU Commissioner for the Environment Janez Potocnik writes:
"This project not only plays an important part in strengthening regional cooperation, it reveals to the rest of Europe the high philosophical and literary standards coming from this -- in many respects -- stigmatized region. It reminds us that Europe is also in the Balkans, rich and diverse."
Issues featured in the journal have included: women's writing; writers and nationalism; the responsibility of writers; non-European Europe; the national literary canon; nomadism; literature and language; and regional focuses on contemporary literature, drama, and film. "Sarajevo Notebook" is published biannually, with articles in all three BCS languages (Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian).
More about "Sarajevo Notebook" including the current issue: http://www.eurozine.com/journals/sarajevonotebook.html
http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-02-26-potocnik-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/authors/potocnik.html
----------------------------------------------------------- 4. NEW EUROZINE PARTNER: DZIEJASLOU----------------------------------------------------------- "Dziejaslou" ("Verb") is the most influential independent title in Belarus for literature, criticism and the arts. Founded in 2002 by writers and editors who left their former journals after they were taken over by the government authorities, "Dziejaslou" soon emerged as an independent forum for liberal authors. Against all odds, it was registered by the Belarusian Ministry of Information and today is a legal bi-monthly publication.
"Dziejaslou" unites a growing community of established writers and talented young authors. It is also highly valued for its representation of the Belarusian literary heritage of Vasil Bykau, Uladzimier Karatkevich, Larysa Henijush and Ales Adamovich. "Dziejaslou" stands for the survival of Belarusian literature and culture; it defends liberty and freedom of expression for writers and journalists, and their right to publish without censorship.
More about "Dziejaslou" including the current issue: http://www.eurozine.com/journals/dziejaslou.html
----------------------------------------------------------- 5. EUROPE TALKS TO EUROPE DEBATE IN BUCHAREST----------------------------------------------------------- The third debate in Eurozine's series "Europe talks to Europe" will take place on 31 March in Bucharest. On a panel entitled "Economy and ethics in crisis", Austrian writer and public intellectual Robert Misik and Romanian economist Daniel Daianu will discuss the ethical and political implications of a globalized economy. Has the financial crisis opened up a new-old east-west divide?
When the financial crisis made clear the extent of western banks' involvement in eastern European economies, concerns surfaced about the effects on western economies, re-awakening perceptions of the East as unruly and unpredictable. In the East, meanwhile, suspicions were reinforced that the West was interested in the new EU member states only insofar as they provided an opportunity to expand existing markets.
The Bucharest debate will address these and other questions raised by the current situation. Does the financial crisis mark the end of neoliberal politics? And what does the European integration project really mean, not only economically but also on a social and cultural level?
"Europe talks to Europe" is a cooperation between Eurozine and the ERSTE Foundation and the Bucharest event is realized together with "Dilema veche" and the Romanian Cultural Institute.
More on the Bucharest debate and the series "Europe talks to Europe": http://www.eurozine.com/comp/europetalkstoeurope.html
http://www.eurozine.com/authors/misik.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/authors/daianu.htmlhttp://www.erstestiftung.org/http://www.eurozine.com/journals/dilemaveche.htmlhttp://www.icr.ro/bucuresti/
----------------------------------------------------------- 6. SNYDER ARTICLE TRANSLATED INTO 10 LANGUAGES----------------------------------------------------------- The publication of the French and German translations of Timothy Snyder's article "Holocaust: The ignored reality" makes it one of the most translated articles in Eurozine history, now available to read in ten languages.
By placing the true scope of the Holocaust further east and that of Stalin's Great Terror further west, and by acknowledging the oft-overlooked "economic calculations" behind the history of mass killing, the Yale historian hints at a true reckoning with the past still to come.
More translations are planned, including Slovak and Turkish versions.
Read Timonthy Snyder's article in English, Estonian, French, German, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Russian and Swedish:
http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-06-25-snyder-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-10-15-snyder-et.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-02-18-snyder-fr.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-02-18-snyder-de.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-08-11-snyder-lt.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-08-24-snyder-no.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-12-02-snyder-pl.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-09-03-snyder-ro.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-01-20-snyder-ru.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-12-15-snyder-sv.html
----------------------------------------------------------- 7. NEW ARTICLES----------------------------------------------------------- Przemyslaw Czaplinksi Deutschland: The image of Germans in Polish literature The figure of the German in recent Polish literature reveals shifts in perspective from the experience of war to that of exile. Representations of the German other in Polish self-imagining. 25.02.2010
This article is now available in English and Polish: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-10-23-czaplinksi-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-02-25-czaplinksi-pl.html
Almantas Samalavicius Literary perspectives: Lithuania Almost normal The literary field in Lithuania has established itself since independence, despite vastly smaller print runs. Today, a range of literary approaches can be made out, from the social criticism of the middle generation to the more private narratives of the post-Soviet writers. 25.02.2010
This article is now available in English and Lithuanian: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-12-27-samalavicius-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-02-25-samalavicius-lt.html
Andreas Harbsmeier Literary perspectives: Denmark The contemporary literary reservation Committed, critical writing in Denmark is emerging from its sheltered existence in a literary reservation, in doing so collapsing the boundaries between the literary field and the broader public sphere, writes Andreas Harbsmeier. 25.02.2010
This article is now available in Danish, English and Lithuanian: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-12-18-harbsmeier-da.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-10-30-harbsmeier-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-02-25-harbsmeier-lt.html
Eurozine Review Razors in the pockets "Magyar Lettre" tells of blood-feuds and sworn virginity; "Intellectum" hears why forensic scientists need people skills; "Mittelweg 36" returns ideology to the centre of the Soviet everyday; "Arena" outsources the brain; "Naqd" acknowledges the resourcefulness of migrants; "Arche" finds Belarusian literature in a vacuum; "L'Espill" reprints classics of Catalan nationalism; "Le Monde diplomatique" observes the world-wide identity pandemic; "Akadeemia" hopes Pavlov's reflex can save solidarity; and "Springerin" reviles capitalist blood sports. 24.02.2010
This article is available in English: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-02-24-eurozinerev-en.html
Sue Black, Victor Tsilonis The lady anatomist Interview with Sue Black "Sometimes we forget we need to ask more questions. Then we have the right to say no." Sue Black, a forensic anthropologist who investigated mass graves in Kosovo, describes how she came to work in warzones and why, despite everything, she loves what she does. 23.02.2010
This article is available in English: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-02-23-black-en.html
Saïd Belguidoum The transformations of the second era of immigration A chronicle of the "forgotten" inhabitants of Cassis In the 1960s, a group of unemployed Tunisian workers near Marseilles, finding themselves homeless, established a makeshift settlement that survived until 2005. Saïd Belguidoum reconstructs everyday life in this successful example of informal accommodation. 22.02.2010
This article is available in French: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-02-22-belguidoum-fr.html
Jochen Hellbeck Everyday ideology: Life during Stalinism Postmodernist historians of everyday life in totalitarian societies underrate the role of ideology at the individual level, preferring a performative reading of subjectivity. This fails to explain why the Soviet and Nazi regimes generated absolute commitment, writes Jochen Hellbeck. 22.02.2010
This article is available in English and German: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-02-22-hellbeck-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-02-22-hellbeck-de.html
Kinga Kali Sworn virgin An Albanian girl is caught between the patriarchal cruelty of village life and the communist assault on traditional values. She flees to Tuzla in Bosnia, in the hope of finding the freedom to live as a woman denied her by the custom of "sworn virginity". 19.02.2010
Timothy Snyder Holocaust: The ignored reality Auschwitz and the Gulag are generally taken to be adequate or even final symbols of the evil of mass slaughter. But they are only the beginning of knowledge, a hint of the true reckoning with the past still to come, writes Timothy Snyder. 18.02.2010
This article is now available in English, Estonian, French, German, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Russian and Swedish: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-06-25-snyder-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-10-15-snyder-et.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-02-18-snyder-fr.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-02-18-snyder-de.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-08-11-snyder-lt.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-08-24-snyder-no.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-12-02-snyder-pl.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-09-03-snyder-ro.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-01-20-snyder-ru.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-12-15-snyder-sv.html
Heike Delitz Parasitic strategies of deconstruction Deconstructivist architecture reveals the immanent breaks in the modern, the impossibility of social order, the fact of constant change. Like a parasite, it nests itself into the old city, causing creative disruption, drawing attention to the exclusions in static and hierarchical spaces. 17.02.2010
This article is available in German: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-02-17-delitz-de.html
Heribert Prantl Are newspapers still relevant? It is not the Internet that is responsible for the "crisis of the press", but subordination of journalism to the market, writes the political editor of the "Süddeutsche Zeitung". For the first time since 1945, German journalism risks becoming trivialized. 15.02.2010
This article is now available in English, German and Lithuanian: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-12-11-prantl-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-08-05-prantl-de.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-02-15-prantl-lt.html
Karl Palmås The defence minister's new philosophy In the panspectric order, society is seen in terms of information traffic. It is not individuals that are observed, as in the panopticon, but the mass. Degrees of corporate and state surveillance are unprecedented; yet panspectricism also brings new forms resistance. 12.02.2010
This article is available in English and Swedish: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-02-12-palmas-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-02-12-palmas-sv.html
Jürgen Trittin Ecological materialism How nature becomes political The ecological reform of the global economy must bring on board those with no interest in preserving nature per se. The more "nature-oriented" a demand is, the less likely it is to be realized and the more catastrophic the consequences will be. 11.02.2010
This article is now available in English, German and Swedish: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-10-30-trittin-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-05-04-trittin-de.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-02-11-trittin-sv.html
Jens-Martin Eriksen, Frederik Stjernfelt Culturalism: Culture as political ideology The multiculturalism debate has changed the political fronts. The Left defends minority cultures while the Right stands guard over national culture. Both are variants of a culturalist ideology, argue Jens-Martin Eriksen and Frederik Stjernfelt. 11.02.2010
This article is now available in English and Hungarian: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-01-09-eriksenstjernfelt-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-02-11-eriksenstjernfelt-hu.html
Eurozine Review Scare-stories of moral decay "New Humanist" doesn't think video games vitiate the brain; "Blätter" argues for the Fourth Way; "Dilema veche" finds almost no reason to be optimistic about "Romania"; "Gegenworte" stands up for the Academy; "Esprit" welcomes the return to a pre-modern concept of ownership; "Merkur" says the German forest isn't what it seems; "Critique & Humanism" moves beyond stereotypes in the trafficking debate; "Dialogi" objects to the Disneyfication of '89; "Kulturos barai" believes there's more mileage in the Baltic Way; "Host" remembers when the world wore shoes made in Zlín; and "dérive" discovers the historical hotbed of the risk-taking bourgeoisie. 10.02.2010
This article is available in English: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-02-11-eriksenstjernfelt-hu.html
Carsten Hucho, Ferdinand Hucho, Tim Hucho On the biodiversity of science The economic potential of Nobel Prize-winning discoveries has rarely been known or intended. A defence of the "aimlessness" of science and a call for a three-pronged system of universities, scientific societies and academies. 09.02.2010
This article is available in German: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-02-09-huchoc-de.html
AC Grayling, Tzvetan Todorov How to defend the Enlightenment "To say that reason is only desiccating and too dry is a dangerous caricature. No less dangerous is to eliminate the place for arts, for myth, which is a different kind of knowledge of the world." Tzvetan Todorov talks to AC Grayling about his new book, "In Defence of the Enlightenment". 08.02.2010
This article is available in English: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-02-08-todorov-en.html
Christopher Newfield The structure and silence of the cognitariat Only a small "creative class" achieves the freedom stereotypically attributed to knowledge workers, writes Christopher Newfield. Increasingly, recipients of higher education are prepared for working life in a knowledge economy where independence has been eroded. 05.02.2010
This article is available in English and French: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-02-05-newfield-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-02-05-newfield-fr.html
Lucas Zeise Banking regulation? Malfunction! The few regulatory measures introduced since the financial collapse are being supervised by the same banking sector that caused it in the first place, writes Lucas Zeise. Governments' delegation of regulatory responsibilities has deeply negative implications for democracy. 05.02.2010
This article is available in English and German: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-02-05-zeise-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-02-05-zeise-de.html
Michael Bywater Fair game Video gaming offers levels of complexity and human interaction beyond any other art form. Cultural commentators who sideline gaming have no more reason on their side than the Victorians who declared that novel-reading led to vitiation of the brain, says Michael Bywater. 04.02.2010
This article is available in English: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-02-04-bywater-en.html
Hansjörg Küster Nature: Object of science and aesthetic category In the natural sciences, transformation is more important than diversity, writes Hansjörg Küster. Conservation laws prevent us thinking about our landscapes, which are not always as natural as they seem. More research is needed into how landscape can be managed. 03.02.2010
This article is available in German: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-02-03-kuster-de.html
Ernesto Laclau The defender of contingency An interview with Ernesto Laclau Ernesto Laclau talks to the Greek journal "Intellectum" about the uses of populism, why radical democracy has nothing to do with liberalism, and how lack of political competition benefits the far-Right. 02.02.2010
This article is available in English and Greek: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-02-02-laclau-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-02-02-laclau-el.html
----------------------------------------------------------- The Eurozine newsletter is published with the support of the Culture Programme of the European Union: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/education_culture/index_en.htm