Tanzconnexions has set itself the target of giving impetus to the dance scene in a region that to date has given little or no support to contemporary dance....
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Fiction / Nonfiction / Political Books
Political Books
Jung Chang and Jon Halliday researched their
biography "Mao" for eleven years until nothing remained of the idealised image of the Great
Chairman.The Spiegel put the book on its cover and the SZ agrees that
if the author's take is accurate, China's history will have
to be retold "on several important points." The NZZ sees the biography
as a "detailed collection of shameless acts," the FAZ praises its
liveliness and density, while the FR considers it more of a criminal
charge than a nuanced biography.
German-Israeli historian and Middle East expert Dan Diner explores in "Versiegelte
Zeit" (sealed time) the controversial question of why the Arab world remains so
undeniably backward. He takes the Arab Human Development Report, which
has been published annually by the United Nations since 2002, and
discovers several interesting and shocking facts: for instance, that in the entire Arab
world, there are four book translations for every million people, compared with 519 in Hungary or 920 in Spain. Diner explains this
with the omnipresence of the sacral, particularly in Arabic speech and
text, which makes change virtually impossible. The SZ does not support
all his arguments but finds the book "stimulating and intelligent."
Andre Glucksmann's investigation of hate as a phenomena that is
spreading in the world, has sparked much discussion. The NZZ finds
Gluckmann's endeavor to locate evil right in the
midst of our modern civilisation "absolutely correct"; at the same
time, it would rather not have to look so closely. The FR considers the author's greatest accomplishment his analysis of the psychological levels of hate based on the Medea
myth, while suspecting that his argument is slightly one-sided. Die
Zeit is delighted that Glucksmann has confronted hate so actively, while
the SZ begs for a little more equanimity. (Features by Andre Glucksmann in English here)
Wolfgang Kraushaar's revelations about "Die Bombe im Jüdischen
Gemeindehaus" (The bomb in the Jewish community centre) has provoked heated debate. The main controversy is not over Albert Fichter's
involvement but rather Kraushaar's insistence that a pervasive anti-Semitism
was at work among the 68ers. The FR hopes the book will precipitate self-reflection
by the Left, and the Berliner Zeitung is most interested in the role of the
state as an agent provocateur. Götz Aly states in Die Welt, "The
German 68ers were wretchedly similar to their parents." (See
an interview with Albert Fichter's brother here)
Both the taz and the FR are extremely impressed by "Despoten vor
Europas Haustür" (despots on Europe's doorstep) in which Tunisian
human rights experts Sihem Bensedrine and Omar Mestiri demonstrate how
the EU's immigration and security policies serve to stabilise the
authoritarian regimes in North Africa, at the expense of the opposition
and human rights. Tunisia in particular has been only too happy to
introduce anti-terrorism measures that render any kind of opposition
illegal. Bensedrine and Mestiri (director of the online magazine Kalima) describe the hatred, desperation and
hopelessness that EU policy is causing in North Africa and show how the
region is becoming a hotbed of precisely the kind of extremist violence against which Europe is trying to protect itself.
High praise from both ends of Germany's political spectrum for the German translation of "The Rebel Sell"). The FAZ and the
taz agree that Andrew Potter and Joseph Heath's thorough-going critique
of the so-called anti-capitalist, anti-consumerist counter culture is
worth a read. The Canadian authors argue that the proponents of
anti-globalisation - the punks, hippies, no globals and Naomi Kleins -
are all essential fuel in the capitalistic machine. In the taz, Robert
Misik takes the thought a step further: the socialist Left has always
wanted to guarantee simple folk a good life, while at the same
time denouncing their pursuit of "wretched materialism". Misik
concludes that "the fight against all the rules should not be confused
with the fight against tyranny."
On a similar note, Georg Franck's "Mentaler Kapitalismus" has been met
with both enthusiasm and scepticism. Following up on his previous book
"The Economy of Attention" (more), Franck investigates further the political
and aesthetic impact of the pervasiveness of advertising. Franck sees
the much avowed "reification of culture" transforming into a
"culturisation of all things": the rich of today are those who get lots
of media attention. While the taz enjoys many of Franck's observations
– such as the fact that "people who would previously have landed
in the nut house are the television stars of today" – the FAZ feels that
Franck is out of his theoretical depth with Derrida and Wittgenstein,
trying to turn his theory into a "model of explanation for the entire
world".
Fiction / Nonfiction / Political Books
RSS
Since its publication in January, Helene Hegemann's novel "Axolotl Roadkill" has been at the centre of a debate whose vagaries of terminology have allowed the seriousness of the case to be downplayed. Philipp Theisohn wishes the literary establishment would drop all its talk of intertextuality in favour of a more democratic category: plagiarism.
UPDATE: The German Book Prize 2009 has been awarded to Katrin Schmidt for her novel "You're Not Going to Die". Read excerpts from all the shortlisted titles - including one from the Nobel Prize laureate Herta Müller's novel "Everything I Own I Carry With Me".
Günter Grass has just published his diary from 1990, recording the tumultous events after the fall of the Berlin Wall. "From Germany to Germany" is a list of ominous predictions for the future of German unity. The former GDR writer Monika Maron looks at how blinded Grass was by his own preconceptions.
This year Turkey was the guest country at the Frankfurt Book Fair. We introduce the books that attracted the most critical attention.
and all the best for 2009!
This year's prestigious Büchner Prize went to Austrian writer Josef Winkler. He talks to Paul Jandl about dung heaps, patriarchs, the fear of speechlessness and the elegance of John Paul II's coffin. Photo © Jerry Bauer / SV
The six finalists for the German Book Prize 2008, an annual award for the best German language novel, have now been announced. Signandsight.com presents English excerpts of the shortlisted titles for the first time.
The legendary German poets, Ingeborg Bachmann and Paul Celan, met and fell in love in Vienna 1948. Their electric and torturous correspondence, which continued until 1961, has now been collected in book form for the first time. Ina Hartwig on what was probably the most complicated love story in post-war Germany.
The headlines were stolen by Charlotte Roche's moist little sex shocker and Jonathan Littell's sprawling SS fantasies but only two books united the critics: one is good and the other, utterly objectionable. There was a flurry of interest in some fabulous comics and a resurgence of the political and the historical novel. A dip into the books published in Germany this spring.