Dramaturgie im zeitgenössischen Tanz ist ? positiv gemeint ? ein heißes Eisen. Idealerweise sind Dramaturginnen und Dramaturgen während der Erarbeitung eines Stücks die besten Freunde der Choreografen.
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Die Welt | Rue89 | The New Republic | Gazeta Wyborcza | Prospect | L'Espresso | Przekroj | The New York Times
Die Welt 05.08.2008 (Germany)
The German newspapers are today full of articles about the death of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. For writer Victor Erofeyev, despite some criticism, he is still a giant. "My feelings for him are very animated – I have strong and contradictory emotions. For me, he was above all the writer of 'The Gulag Archipelago', this memoriam of all victims of Stalinism. With this book, he was not only able to bring together the testimonies of hundreds of victims of repression, but he managed, as a writer using derision and ridicule, to awaken a shocked Russia. That is a heroic deed for a writer. It caused political upheaval of European magnitude. 'The Gulag Archipelago' destroyed Euro-Communism: he dispelled the 'left's' illusions of a 'shining future'. But Solzhenitsyn didn't just see himself as the liberator of Russia. He carried with him the image of Leo Tolstoy as a teacher. He wanted to be a new Tolstoy and create his own artistic world to transfigure the Russian language. He didn't succeed in that. His book 'The Red Wheel' (an endless historical epic from the start of the 20th century), written in the spirit of 'War and Peace', didn't go anywhere, and remained uncompleted. The novel's hero turned out to be a stillborn child. His linguistic experiment with few words and folkloric expressions was painful on my ears. It is very fake and distasteful."
Rue89 02.08.2008 (France)
After centuries of the remorseless centralisation process which saw birchings dealt out to Breton children who didn't want to speak French, France has now placed its regional languages under the protection of the constitution, considering them part of the "national heritage". Whilst Elisabeth Cestor does support this decision, she also looks in dread at the situation in neighbouring Spain: "Whilst the debates about integration and official recognition of regional languages were going on in France, the Spanish government won a legal case against the Catalan government meaning that in Catalonia's primary and secondary schools, three hours of Spanish-language teaching instead of two are now obligatory, because teaching should not be exclusively in Catalan."
The New Republic 13.08.2008 (USA)
In the last few years, without anyone noticing, Chicago has become almost European, observes Alan Ehrenhalt with dismay: "In the past three decades, Chicago has undergone changes that are routinely described as gentrification, but are in fact more complicated and more profound than the process that term suggests. A better description would be 'demographic inversion'. Chicago is gradually coming to resemble a traditional European city - Vienna or Paris in the nineteenth century, or, for that matter, Paris today. The poor and the newcomers are living on the outskirts. The people who live near the center - some of them black or Hispanic but most of them white - are those who can afford to do so."
James Kirchick presents the 'Devil's Advocates' - the lobbyists who work for Africa's despots in Washington. For example the former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, Mervyn Dymally, briefly represented Mauritania, a country where slavery is still practised. The most infamous of them all was Edward von Kloberg III ("Shame is for sissies"!), who worked for Saddam Hussein and Nicolae Ceausescu and was even caught in a sting operation by the satirical magazine Spy, in which a writer disguised as a neo-Nazi leader of a group advocating the German annexation of Poland wanted representation.
Gazeta Wyborcza 02.08.2008 (Poland)
In search of Poland's lost lefties, Joanna Derkaczew speaks to the young theatre directors Monika Strzepka and Pawel Demirski. The pair are not thrilled by the realities faced by their generation: "My father, an intellectual, started up a company after 1989, which came to nothing. He couldn't understand it as he did everything the way he was told to. That's what most people our age do too – they do everything one is supposed to do: training, courses, work experience. And a couple of years later when they realise that nothing has changed, they panic. For they retain the belief that if they just make that little bit more effort, then everything will work out. But even if everyone were equally talented and made the same effort, it's not enough for everyone. That is one of the biggest traps of neoliberalism", states Demirski.
Anna Bikont praises Joanna Wiszniewicz's book about the "March Generation" – Polish Jews who had to leave Poland after the 1968 campaign of anti-Semitism. Many never really settled in their new homelands and struggle with their Polish-Jewish identity: "Wiszniewicz doesn't comment on anything and tries not to make generalisations. She allows her heroes to tell their story. It is an excellent piece of 'oral history' which is still a historical methodology viewed with distrust in Poland where there is more belief in documents, amongst those the documents of the Communist Secret Police, than in the spoken word. The book is also simply excellent literature.."
Prospect 01.08.2008 (UK)
To talk of "good character" is just not fashionable any more. But the British are now rediscovering character. Not as a bundle of innate qualities, but as something that can be created. Richard Reeves explains: "Since character is an unfashionable concept, it is important to be clear what it means in this public policy context. The three key ingredients of a good character are: a sense of personal agency or self-direction; an acceptance of personal responsibility; and effective regulation of one's own emotions, in particular the ability to resist temptation or at least defer gratification. Progressives are realising that, thus defined, character is intimately linked to many of their social goals—and also that it is unevenly distributed. Indeed, inequality of character may now be as important as inequality of economic resources."
Other articles: If the Fareed Zacharias and Thomas Friedmans of this world had less prejudices and would just open their eyes, they would recognise that George W. Bush has led an extraordinarily successful foreign policy, writes Edward Luttwak. Andrew Keen is worried about American newspapers which are taking a hit from publications like the Huffington Post. Stephen Chan describes the tragedy of Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who has unfortunately contributed much to Mugabe's success.
L`Espresso 31.07.2008 (Italy)
Italy is sending two boxers to the Olympic Games: Clemente "Tatanka" Russo and Domenico "Mirko" Valentino. Both train in Marcianise, not far from Naples. Roberto Saviano transforms them into the ambassadors of their angry homeland in his report. "In their punches, there is the built-up rage of this region. In the streets of Marcianise they are all asking: 'When are we going to Beijing?' They don't ask 'When are you going?', but 'When are we going?' Because nobody here is merely an individual, but they are rather the sum of the many. This support gives a boost. And so only one thing is demanded of the two guys: bring back to this area that which has been taken away and show everyone what lies hidden away back here – rage, loneliness and the emptiness of the evenings. Clemente and Mirko are cut from the same cloth which doesn't exist anywhere else. They are so hungry to become something and to achieve something and emancipate themselves."
Przekroj 30.07.2008 (Poland)
The Polish magazine devotes its lead story (with a nice cover picture and the title "Europe's Ringleader"!) to Nicolas Sarkozy, "who heals his own complexes with the help of big-stage politics", but who is also "the most reputable French politician since de Gaulle". The "Telepresident" has recently raised a lot of attention for his foreign policy initiatives, above all the Mediterranean Union summit. "Looking more closely at the successes, it becomes evident that the visionary initiatives are often of cyclical nature and that Sarkozy is as much statesman as he is showman, and that his biggest ally of recent times has been pure luck."
Jarek Szubrycht looks back at 40 years of heavy metal, which was just born in the hippy year of 1968. The most interesting part of the history is that of heavy metal's reception by communist Poland – from its difficult beginnings to the silent toleration in the 1980s. To illustrate, there is the example of the band Imperator, who once had to confront the censors before a concert: "It was about the verse 'The beast comes from the deep.' The official screamed: 'What's that about?! Is it perhaps about Solidarnosc?' The musicians answered, truthfully: 'It's about Satan.' - 'OK then, you're in luck, you're allowed to play it.'"
The New York Times 03.08.2008 (USA)
"A powerful, brilliantly researched and deeply unsettling book" is how Alan Brinkley rates "The Dark Side - The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals" (excerpt here) in the lead article of the Sunday Book Review. The book by New Yorker reporter Jane Mayer compiles all the facts from the darkest chapter of recent American history: the advent of torture in the "War on Terror". "There is no happy ending to this sordid and shameful story. Despite growing political pressure, despite Supreme Court decisions challenging the detainment policy, despite increasing revelations of the once-hidden program that have shocked the conscience of the world, there is little evidence that the secret camps and the torture programs have been abandoned or even much diminished."
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The Republicans are waging a war against women, the New York Magazine declares. Perhaps it's because women are so unabashed about reading porn in public - that's according to publisher Beatriz de Moura in El Pais Semanal, at least. Polityka remembers Operation Reinhard. Tensions are growing between Poland and Hungary as Victor Orban spreads his influence, prompting ruminations on East European absurdity from both Elet es Irodalom and salon.eu.sk. Wired is keeping its eyes peeled on the only unassuming sounding Utah Data Center.
In Telerama, Benjamin Stora grabs hold of the Algerian boomerang. In Eurozine, Slavenka Drakulic tells the Venetians that they should be very scared of Chinese money. Bela Tarr tells the Frankfurter Rundschau and the Berliner Zeitung that his "Turin Horse", which ends in total darkness was not intended to depress. In die Welt, historian Dan Diner cannot agree with Timothy Snyder's "Bloodlands": National Socialism was not like Communism - because of Auschwitz.
In Perfil author Martin Kohn explains why Argentina would be less
Argentinian if it won back the Falklands. In Il sole 24 ore, Armando
Massarenti describes the Italians as a pack of illiterates sitting atop a
treasure trove. Polityka introduces the Polish bestseller of the season:
Danuta Walesa's autobiography. L'Express looks into the state of
Japanese literature one year after Fukushima.
In Merkur, Stephan Wackwitz muses on poetry and absurdity in Tiflis. Outlook India happens on the 1980s Indian answer to "The Artist". Bloomberg Businessweek climbs into the cuckoo's nest with the German Samwar brothers. Salon.eu.sk learns how to line the pockets of a Slovenian politician. In the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Navid Kermani reports back impressed from the Karachi Literature Festival. 
In La Vie des idees, historian Anastassios Anastassiadis explains why we should go easy on Greece. Author Aleksandar Hemon describes in Guernica how ethnic identity is indoctrinated in the classroom in Bosnia and Herzogovina. In Eurozine, Klaus-Michael Bogdal examines how Europe invented the Gypsies. Elet es Irodalon praises the hygiene obsession of German journalists. And Polityka pinpoints Polish schizophrenia.
The New Republic sees a war being waged in the USA against women's rights. For Rue89, people who put naked women on the front page of a newspaper should not be surprised if they go to jail. In Elet es Irodalom, historian Mirta Nunez Daaz-Balart explains why the wounds of the Franco regime never healed. In Eurozine, Stephen Holmes and Ivan Krastev see little in common between the protests in Russia and those in the Arab world.
In Letras Libras Enrique Krauze and Javier Sicilia fight over anarchy levels. In Elet es Irodalom Balint Kadar wants Budapest to jump on the Berlin bandwagon. In Le Monde Imre Kertesz has given up practically all hope for a democratic Hungary. Polityka ponders poetic inspiration and Wislawa Szymborska's "I don't know". In Espressso, Umberto Eco gets eschatological.
Poland's youth have taken to the streets to protest against Acta and Donald Tusk has listened, Polityka explains. Himal and the Economist report on the repression of homosexuality in the Muslim world. Outlook India doesn't understand why there will be no "Dragon Tattoo" film in India. And in Eurozine, Slavenka Drakulic looks at how close the Serbs are to eating grass.
In the French Huffington Post, philosopher Catherine Clement explains why the griot Youssou N'Dour had next to no chance of becoming Senegal's president. Peter Sloterdijk (in Le Monde) and Umberto Eco (in Espresso) share their thoughts about forgetting. Al Ahram examines the post-electoral depression of Egypt's young revolutionaries. And in Eurozine, Kenan Malik defends freedom of opinion against those who want the world to go to sleep.
Il Sole Ore weeps at the death of a laughing Vincenzo Consolo. In Babelia, Javier Goma Lanzon cries: Praise me, please! Osteuropa asks: Hungaria, quo vadis? The newborn French Huffington Post heralds the birth of the individual in the wake of the Arab Spring. Outlook India is infuriated by the cowardliness of Indian politicians in the face of religious fanatics.
In Nepszabadsag the dramatist György Spiro recognises 19th century France in Hungary today. Peter Nadas, though, in Lettre International and salon.eu.sk, is holding out hope for his country's modernisation. In Open Democracy, Boris Akunin and Alexei Navalny wish Russia was as influential as America - or China. And in Lettras Libras, Peter Hamill compares Mexico with a mafia film by the Maquis de Sade.
Are books about to become a sort of author-translator wiki, asks Il Sole 24 Ore. Rue 89 reports on the "Tango Wars" in downtown Buenos Aires. Elet es Irodalom posits a future for political poetry. In Merkur, Mikhail Shishkin encounters Russian pain in Switzerland. Die Welt discovers the terror of the new inside the collapse of the old in Andrea Breth's staging of Isaak Babel's "Maria". And Poetry Foundation waits for refugees in Lampedusa. 
Technology Review sees Apple as the next Big Brother. In Eurozine, Per Wirten still fears the demons of the European project. Al Ahram Weekly features Youssef Rakha's sarcastic "The honourable citizen manifesto". Revista Piaui profiles Iraqi-Norwegian geologist Farouk Al-Kasim. Slate.fr comments on the free e-book versions of Celine's work. And Die Welt celebrates the return of Palais Schaumburg.
Andre Glucksman in Tagesspiegel looks at the impact of the Putinist plague on Russia and Europe. In Letras Libras Martin Caparros celebrates the Kindle as book. György Dalos has little hope that Hungary's intellectuals can help get their country out of the doldrums. Le Monde finds Cioran with his head up the skirt of a young German woman. The NYT celebrates the spread of N'Ko, the West African text messaging alphabet.
MicroMega cheers recent landmark Mafia convictions in Milan. Volltext champions Hermann Broch. Elet es Irodalom calls the Orban government’s attack on cultural heritage "Talibanisation". Magyar Narancs is ambiguous about new negotiations with the IMF. Telerama recommends the icon of anti-colonialism Frantz Fanon. Salon.eu.sk quips about the dubious election results in Russia, and voices in the German press mark the passing of Christa Wolf. And in the Anglophone press Wired profiles Jeff Bezos, while the Columbia Journalism Review polemicises the future of internet journalism.