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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The New Republic encourages Europeans to embrace unlimited freedom of speech – including Holocaust denial. Bernard-Henri Levy opposes this view, in Le Point: negation is part of the crime itself. Outlook India takes a look at beauty salons in slums. Der Merkur describes the connection between the cultural arrogance of Islam and economic breakdown. In the NRC Handelsblad, reporter Vik Franke explains how he shot back in Afghanistan. In the Gazeta Wyborcza, Adam Michnik writes about differences between the Polish and Hungarian revolutions.
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In a recent speech in Israel, singer, song-writer and polemicist Wolf Biermann castigated Germany for misjudging the tragedy in the Middle East conflict and sympathising with radical Muslims out of patronising contempt. (Photo: Hans Weingartz)
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With 23 premieres in 8 concerts over 48 hours, the Donaueschinger Musiktage is one of the major festivals for contemporary music. And for those who think that's a white elephant, think again. This year's edition was bursting at the seams. By Peter Hagmann
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Atlantic Monthly marvels at Hillary Clinton's talent for manipulation. In Outlook India, Arundhati Roy protests the death sentence for Mohammed Afzal. In Al Ahram, Elias Khoury interprets the Nobel Prize for Orhan Pamuk as the text's revenge against its author. Bernard-Henri Levy wants Anna Politkovskya to be Putin's pang of conscience. In Elet es Irodalom, Peter Nadas and Peter Esterhazy reflect on the Uprising of 1956. Gazeta Wyborcza reminds us that 1956 also saw a revolution in Poland. And The New York Times Magazine documents the rise of the Taliban.
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The Berlin cut-price label Picaldi has cornered the jeans market for hoodies, dolies and rappers. By Johannes Gernert
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Some people will think: "Not another book on the Holocaust!" But historian Saul Friedländer depicts the "Years of Extermination" with tremendous power and drama. His narrative style is much like that of a film director, elegantly combining individual stories with world events. By Dan Diner
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Berlin's Museum Island is perhaps the most important museum complex in the world. It was embellished this week with the reopening of the Bode Museum, housing the finest display of European sculpture anywhere. Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, takes us on a first-ever tour of European history in three-dimensional form.
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It is no wonder that Caravaggio is being rediscovered. Not because he shows us what we have become, but rather what we have lost. On the occasion of a major show in Dusseldorf, Georg Seeßlen pays tribute to the inventor of modern art.
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There's no quenching German thirst for the organic lemonade in a Bionade bottle. The factory can't meet demand and has sent Coca Cola packing. Cornelius and Fabian Lange describe the rise of the Bionade empire out of the ashes of the failing Peter brewery in what was once a failing region in Germany - soon to be home to the Bionade valley.
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In the NRC Handelsblad, Ian Buruma looks at the whining Neocons and asks: "Where is the debate?In the Gazeta Wyborcza, Neocon Norman Podhoretz says Islamic fundamentalism is the new totalitarianism. In Asharq Al-Awsat, historian Abdesselam Cheddadi demands that the Arab world re-read their Ibn Khaldun. The Spectator sees South Africa in grave difficulties. L'Express introduces a new philosophy which is an old one. The New Yorker sings the praises of the German universities of the 19th century. Die Weltwoche calls the West's reaction to North Korea resolutely perplexed. And The New York Times Magazine portrays Wang Hui, leader of China's New Left.
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Historian Joachim Fest's memoirs of his youth, "Ich Nicht," document an elitism that seeks to distance itself from petty-bourgeois National Socialism, and form a counterpoint to the prevailing culture of memory in the Federal Republic of Germany. Although the historical establishment tended to view Fest askance, his recollections document a genuinely cultivated German bourgeoisie. By Jens Bisky
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The murder of Anna Politovskaya shocked not only the world, but critical voices in Russia as well. Philosopher Michail Ryklin talks with Caroline Fetscher about the new degree of fear in Russia.
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In one of the last articles she wrote for the Novaya Gazeta before being murdered on October 7, 2006, Anna Politkovskaya paid tribute to the recently fallen Buvadi Dakhiev. A warlord with humanity, he was a rare find in Chechnya.
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The Arab intellectual behaves like a despotic father. No internal family matter may be exposed to the outside world. Regardless of what the reality may be, a facade of unbroken unity must be maintained. In private talks you hear opinions that are radically different from what is published in the newspapers the next day. By Khalid al-Maaly (Image © Brigitte Friedrich, Cologne)
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Vanity Fair investigates the Haditha massacre. Asharq Al-Awsat is amazed that intellectual Muslim women are defining the image of Islam in America. Outlook India could care less about fiction's camouflage. Der Spiegel knows what Putin wants to buy in Germany. In Semana, Hector Abad Faciolince calls American suburbs a forecourt to hell. DU is dedicated to Rebecca Horn. And Lorenzo de Medici explains in Die Weltwoche why it's okay for his family to die out.
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Autumn is the season of art in Berlin. Elke Buhr surveys the multitude of galleries, festivals and fairs and comes to the conclusion that art is mainstream and Berlin is at the centre of it all. (Image: Berliner Liste © Anja Vormann, Sausage Faces, 2002)
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In response to the uproar caused by Benedict XVI's speech in Regensburg, Abdelwahab Meddeb, one of France's most respected Arab writers, considers why peaceful disputes between Christians and Muslims were possible in the Middle Ages but not today. An interview with Michael Mönninger.
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Literaturen pays tribute to Joachim Fest's father. The New York Review of Books knows something that's hotter than GoogleBooks: Espresso Printing! Outlook India is concerned about Pervez Musharraf. The TLS thinks it knows why Günter Grass was so quiet for so long about his SS membership. Lettre prints the best literary reportage in the world. In Gazeta Wyborcza, Salman Rushdie pays respect to artists in Islamic countries. And Express is embarrassed to be French.
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Policemen as chief Mafiosi, gangster bosses as Hollywood icons, politics run by religion and businesses run by fear: Bombay the mega-city of schizophrenias. An exercise in the art of the poisonous declaration of love by Ilija Trojanow.
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