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 art of glimmer and of deception. Seminal works show the roots and origins of the Op Art movement in an exhibition at Frankfurt's Schirn Kunsthalle. The dynamic of black and white fields meets snuffling electric motors. And a bachelor machine makes jokes and winks. By Ulf Erdmann Ziegler
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It was only with the end of the Soviet Union that Russians got the chance to get discover their own 20th century literature. Forbidden authors like Nabokov, Mandelstam, Brodsky and Kharms became hugely popular. But until today the most enduring are the Oberiuts, a group of avant-garde poets from the 20s and 30s. By Olga Martynova
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In Lettre International, anthropologist Filip de Boeck examines the bodies that move through Kinshasa. The New York Review of Books asks whether the overflowing prisions in the USA might make sense after all. Taslima Nasrin reviews Ayaan Hirsi Ali's autobiography in Outlook India. In ResetDoc, Martha Nussbaum asks why Hirsi Ali doesn't go to India instead of the USA. Umberto Eco presents the detective-philosophers in L'Espresso. Tygodnik Powszechny can already see the UK ruled by two kings. In Elsevier, Afshin Ellian demands more information on what the EU intends to do. And The Spectator reports from the size-zero hell at a girls' school.
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It's not enough to condemn terrorism. The religion that engenders it and on which it is based, right or wrong, must also be reformed. Some final remarks on the multiculturalism debate by Pascal Bruckner.
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A bold vision for 50 years down the line will not help us get on right now. I am content with a vision for the period leading up to the European elections in 2009. Those elections should be coupled with a Europe-wide referendum on three questions: whether the Union, beyond effective decision-making procedures, should have a directly elected president, its own foreign minister, and its own financial base. By Jürgen Habermas
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The debate on Europe and Islam should stop profiling people like Ayaan Hirsi Ali or Tariq Ramadan, and focus on Euro-Islam as a bridge between civilisations. Europe has a civilising identity and the right to preserve it. This is not anti-Muslim, because the idea of Europe is inclusive. Europe respects the identity of immigrants yet expects them to adapt without surrendering their sense of self. By Bassam Tibi
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The UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions entered into force on March 18. Rüdiger Wischenbart gives a quick overview of the realities behind translation.
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Who should the West support: moderate Islamists like Tariq Ramadan, or Islamic dissidents like Ayaan Hirsi Ali? Are the rights of the group higher than those of the individual? With a fiery polemic against Ian Buruma's "Murder in Amsterdam" and Timothy Garton Ash's review of this book in the New York Review of Books, Pascal Bruckner has kindled an international debate. By now Ian Buruma, Timothy Garton Ash, Necla Kelek, Paul Cliteur, Lars Gustafsson, Stuart Sim, Ulrike Ackermann, Adam Krzeminski, Halleh Ghorashi, Bassam Tibi and Margriet de Moor have all stepped into the ring.
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Vanity Fair portrays the king of the mercenaries. Gazeta Wyborcza speaks out against forcing Polish homosexuals into partial non-existence. In The Spectator, Churchill's biographer Sir Martin Gilbert is adamant that Churchill was not an anti-Semite. In DU magazine, Suad Amiry advises against going to the gym in Ramallah. The New Yorker meets Iraqi translators. Il Foglio visits a swinger club where almost anything that's any fun is forbidden. And Die Weltwoche watches a Sheik buy art.
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Asian soap and popstar Jung Ji-hoon alias Rain was at the Berlinale last month for the premiere of his new film. He talks to Jens Balzer about Michael Jackson's moonwalk, trailblazing for an Asian Union and the man who taught him to yodel like a Swiss goatherd.
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With her first novel "The Hour Between Dog and Wolf," Silke Scheuermann has written her way into the top league of young authors. The story is, once again, of young women saddled with privilege and boredom. But the language is cool, underwater movement and its author as intelligent as she is subtle. By Ulrich Greiner
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Ayaan Hirsi Ali's ideas on the incompatibility of Islamic faith and the emancipation of women are reductionist and dogmatic. Only openness to migrants' decisions can help Western society steer clear of cultural fundamentalism. By Halleh Ghorashi
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In the New York Review of Books, Julian Barnes looks at the mild French queasiness. In ResetDoc the Nobel Prize Winner for Peace Shirin Ebadi gets annoyed about Enlightenment fundamentalists. The American Scholar doesn't think that Peter Handke is such a genius that we should forgive his admiration of Milosevic. In Nouvel Obs, Alain Minc says he 's going to vote for Sarkozy, even if it means being laughed at in the Cafe de Flore. In Espresso, Umberto Eco makes a plea for Uffiziland. Elet es Irodalom wonders why the Piresen are so hated in Hungary.
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Comparisons of Islam and communism like those drawn by Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Ulrike Ackermann are gross oversimplifications. But just as many factors played into the fall of communism, the Gordian knot of Islam and Europe needs "fundamentalist" as well as "culturalist" solutions. By Adam Krzeminski
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Jesco Delorme defends Ian Buruma, Timothy Garton Ash and Stuart Sim against charges of cultural relativisim. Looking for criteria on which to base the legitimate demands of minorities, he sketches the physiognomy of liberalism and accuses Buruma's critics of constrictive political thinking.
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In Al Ahram, the Canadian Hadeel Al-Shalchi finds that Egyptian woman wear the headscarf for the wrong reasons. The Economist reports on light and shadows in South Africa. Asharq al-Awsat looks at Arab intellectuals and the French elections. Merkur asks why the Germans have such a loathing for class society. And Elet es Irodalom recommends Hungarians should take a more sobre view of democracy.
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Much of the work of the Renaissance sculptor Conrat Meit has been lost over the centuries. The Bayerisches Nationalmuseum in Munich has pulled together a goodly collection from around the world which proves Meit to be a master of the pot-bellied feminine ideal of the day. By Birgit Sonna
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The Iraq War enjoyed more public support among intellectuals than any other war since 1914. Today it can safely be said to have been a disaster. Gustav Seibt asks why so many thinking people took a such supportive stance and finds the answers in a misplaced attachment to historical analogies.
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