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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A conversation with composer Wolfgang Rihm about productive solitude, the predominance of entertainment, and his new monodrama "Das Gehege" (The Aviary). By Thomas Assheuer and Claus Spahn
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Human reason is weighed down by questions it can neither reject nor answer beyond the shadow of a doubt. The existence of God is one such question, pitting spiritual needs against intellectual honesty. By Ernst Tugendhat
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Nationalist chic has Bulgaria in its grip and anti-Europeanism is catching on fast. Europe's main problem is the divergence of rule of law and democracy and the consequences will be extremely hard to turn back, writes the Bulgarian cultural anthropologist Ivaylo Ditchev.
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While many Europeans are fed up with Europe, to others it seems like heaven on earth. In presenting itself as an economic power, Europe fails to take advantage of its emotional potential. This is the age of the image, but European stories no longer play a significant role in our theatres. The countries of Europe could dream the European dream if only we had faith in the power of our own imagery! A call to arms by German filmmaker Wim Wenders.
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Prospect wonders whether capitalism needs democracy. Writer Jerzy Pilch claims in Tygodnik Powszechny that happy people don't write books. Revista de Libros celebrates the Chilean Boswell, Adolfo Bioy Caseres. Gazeta Wyborcza fears that Cuba post Castro might borrow a leaf from Pinochet's Chile. In Le Point, Bernard-Henri Levy fears that Castro may follow Pinochet: yet another dictator allowed to die peacefully in bed. Magyar Hirlap recalls the famine that Ukraine was subjected to by Stalin. The TLS tells how Margaret Thatcher was charmed by a Spanish foreign minister. Die Weltwoche was kidnapped by the Taliban.
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Since France's first suburban riots took place there in 1981, Les Minguettes has had a serious image problem. The suburb of Lyon is synonymous with integration problems, urban violence and social decay. But having taken the time to look behind the apartment block facades, Anne-Marie Vaterlaus paints a picture not entirely devoid of hope.
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In Lettre International, Bora Cosic describes the decadence of culture in Belgrade. The Economist points its finger at the machismo of the German press. In Vanity Fair, Christopher Hitchens ponders why women can never make him laugh. Asharq al-Awsat reports on the debates in the Arab Writer's Union. In Figaro, Pascal Bruckner demands a culture of courage in the West. The London Review of Books looks at an example of bio-sentimentality. And Tygodnik quips that the Pope nearly converted to Islam in Istanbul.
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In a major interview given a few years before his death, the irascible Austrian author Thomas Bernhard talks about the musicality of language, the eroticism of old men, the corruption of German writers, the twistedness of mankind, the similarities between Christianity and Nazism, the incurability of stupidity and what it means to be branded "Thomas Bernhard" for life. By Werner Wögerbauer (Photo © Andrej Reiser / Suhrkamp Verlag)
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Indian literature burst onto the German market, rambunctious and effervescing. A choir of Eastern European voices sings of the Hungarian Uprising, the lost province of Sarmatia and Machiavellian nasties in provincial Poland. German literature scales mountains in free verse and buries itself in the aging process. And many a great man remembers...
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György Dalos and Paul Lendvai explore the Hungarian Uprising. Saul Friedländer gives the first truly all-encompassing portrayal of the Holocaust. There's a run of striking memoirs by Imre Kertesz, Günter Grass and Joachim Fest. And Gary Schwartz' "Rembrandt Book" is the talk of the Rembrandt year.
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Many young German directors are filming with an eye toward authentic stories. Reality is their key. And talking is kept to a minimum. Matthias Luthardt's film "Pingpong" is a paradigm of this Nouvelle Vague Allemande. By Hanns-Georg Rodek
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Folio looks for freedom - in China, Russia, the Arab world and jail. Nepszabadsag bows before monsters in skirts and proud fairies - and before Magda Szabo, whose stories deal with both. In Gazeta Wyborcza, Dorota Maslowska says why drama is like maths. The TLS reads Thomas Pynchon's new novel as a protest against the experience of being obliterated. In DU, Felicitas Hoppe admits she can't swim before being baptised at the Equator. Wired wonders how it's possible to sell Meow Mix with exploding cats. In Elet es Irodalom, Laszlo Földenyi celebrates the shadowy paintings of Attila Szücs. And The New York Times tells the CIA to develop mob intelligence.
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German painter Tomma Abts left for London twelve years ago. Her quiet, geometric paintings with Frisian names have just won her the Turner Prize. Morgan Falconer talked to her on the eve of award ceremony.
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A deadly brain disease connects painter Jörg Immendorff and neurologist Thomas Meyer. One has ALS, the other is working on a cure. By Jan Brandt (Image: Jörg Immendorff, "Solo". Courtesy The Saatchi Gallery)
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