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 case of anti-Communist Romanian novelist Vintila Horia (1915-1992) - condemned by some as pro-fascist - illustrates the difficulty of establishing a literary canon after the end of totalitarianism in Eastern Europe. Now, some Romanian intellectuals want to rehabilitate his image. Can the man be viewed separately from his art? By Richard Wagner
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The Mainz-based composer Volker David Kirchner is widely seen as one of Germany's foremost - and most popular - contemporary classical composers. He talks to Stefan Schickhaus about his love for chamber pieces, the holy trininty of the German music world and why it doesn't pay to write opera. (Photo © Stefan Schickhaus)
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This year scientists will attempt to recreate the Big Bang in the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the world's biggest particle physics laboratory on the Swiss-French border. Astrophysicist and author Ulrich Woelk takes us on a literary voyage from Stonehenge to the sub-atomic core.
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In Espresso, Andrzej Stasiuk describes the tribal cult of the Kaczynski brothers. In the London Review of Books, Colm Toibin makes some manly assertions in reviewing Ian McEwan's new novel. In the New York Review of Books, Vaclav Havel explains why as president one is better off not following the example of the Queen. In Revista de Libros, Mexican writer Juan Villoro reflects on what McLuhan would have made of a cyber cafe. The TLS celebrates Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and De Groene Amsterdammer reports on nascent student protests in Russia.
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How sex-obsessed is a culture that teaches a woman that she is basically a walking, sitting or reclining set of genitals? How over-aroused is a society in which men are expected to have no qualms about pouncing on any woman who happens to walk by, unless a divinely ordained dress code forbids them to do so? Dutch writer Margriet de Moor looks at Islam in the light of Europe and Europe in the light of Islam. (Photo © Maria Neefjes)
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"In America I learned that Europe is possible." A conversation with Bernard-Henri Levy about his trip through the USA, the neo-conservatives after the disaster in Iraq, the fascist roots of Islamism and France before the elections. By Thierry Chervel (Photo: R. Escher)
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The recent represssions of demonstrations by "The other Russia" suggest that Putin's regime is very concerned about the opposition. But why? He has the country solidly under his thumb, his ratings are good, the people fear his departure. But of course, as Sonja Margolina reports, "controlled instability" has certain advantages.
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In Asharq al-Awsat, Amir Taheri reminds Western critics of the West that Arab critics of the Arab world are either dead, in jail or in exile. Nepszabadsag wishes for a common history book for central Europe. Bernard-Henri Levy has fallen prey to Barack Obama's seduction in Le Point. Outlook India demands more realism in Indian literature. The New Yorker, Economist and New York Times have all plunged into the French elections.
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Baden-Württemberg's premier Günther Oettinger made a few off comments in his speech at the funeral of his predecessor Hans Filbinger last week. Namely that Filbinger, who had worked as a judge for the National Socialist regime, had opposed the Nazis. Having been rapped on the knuckles by Angela Merkel, Oettinger recanted, as little as possible. Then he granted himself an apology. Arno Widmann is not impressed.
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The world's most famous string quartet leaves the concert stage after forty years. An encounter with the Alban Berg Quartet. By Volker Hagedorn
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This need not be a case of either Hirsi Ali or Tariq Ramadan. Timothy Garton Ash and Ian Buruma set Pascal Bruckner straight on a few last points.
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After the "Orange Revolution" in Ukraine, the "Blue camp" is now trying to pull off a cheap copy. But Ukrainians are reacting calmly to the happenings on Independence Square. By Oksana Zabuzhko
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Dada is back. Erwin Wurm is the great grandson of the Surrealists. The hilarity and hidden meanings of his stagings and sculptures unsettle and get under your skin. To coincide with a major retrospective in Hamburg's Deichtorhallen, Werner Spies visited the artist in his studio in Vienna.
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With its bold fashion and design, the city of Antwerp has established itself in recent years as the style capital of the Dutch-speaking world. Yet architecture is also big in the city. The "deSingel" cultural centre features an elegant, understated - in a word cool - show on SANAA architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa. By Roman Hollenstein
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Vanity Fair presents Annie Leibovitz' star photos of Knut. Outlook India portrays India's most popular writer Khushwant Singh. The New York Review of Books is captivated by Tintoretto's brushstrokes. In the Nouvel Obs, Vladimir Sorokin characterises the Homo Putinus. Letras Libras thinks it highly unlikely that "The Life of Others" will be screened in Cuba. DU magazine looks at the latest form of terrorism that will affect us all eventually. In Le Point, historian Madeleine Ferrieres describes the nourritures canailles. And the New York Times describes Pope Bendict XVI as an intellectual siren.
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Ingo Schulze has reached new literary heights in his latest collection of short stories. Full of digressions and distractions, full of calculated humility, Schulze turns what seems to be non-art into art in its highest form. By Ulrich Greiner
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It seems no coicidence that the West is volunteering to restrict economic growth, now that it's stopped anyway. And that Germany wants to put a limit on just about every pleasure it's ever known. Why are we punishing ourselves? Because politicians need a remedy for their own feelings of powerlessness. By Jens Jessen
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Merkur wonders why Europeans keep kowtowing to Tehran. Folio is considering marriage. In Le Monde, Claude Lanzmann gets in a huff over Paris' new traffic system under the reign of ecological chubby cheeks. In Gazeta Wyborcza, Norman Davies thinks about what a European history book might look like. The NRC Handelsblad describes the immoral consequences of too many prohibitions. In Literaturen, Gerd Koenen sees the old problems of the Soviet Union re-emerging in Putin's Russia. And the New Yorker has spotted a literary paradigm shift: food instead of sex.
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Freud once said that "dreams are the guardians of sleep." Andre Glucksmann has spent his life trying to fight them. At almost 70, he's as alert, distrusting and belligerent as ever. David Signer talks with the French philosopher about his new autobiography "Une rage d'enfant," and his life spent trying to find productive expression for his rage.
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