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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Outlook India | Gazeta Wyborcza | Heti Vilaggazdasag | Il Foglio | De Groene Amsterdammer | Polityka | Die Weltwoche | Al Ahram Weekly | The Spectator | The New Yorker
Outlook India, 28.08.2006 (India)
"Three cheers for Ayaan" cries exiled Bangladeshi writer and women's rights activist Taslima Nasrin after reading Ayaan Hirsi Ali's book "The Caged Virgin". This is not to say that Nasrin agrees with everything Hirsi Ali writes. Misogyny is the sole domain of neither Islam nor religion, Nasrin maintains. Honour killings and genital mutilation are culturally rather than religiously anchored. "Male reformers are useless. To break the rigidity of Muslim society, and to reject Islam, we need thousands of angry women presently in the grip of the venomous snake of Islam. Once they hit back, how long can it sting?"
Gazeta Wyborcza, 19.08.2006 (Poland)
The press reveals a dark chapter in the biography of one of the greatest writers of the 20th century – sound familiar? This is not about Günter Grass but refers to the revelation by the weekly paper Wprost that Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert had worked for the communist secret police. A storm of outrage, apologies and criticism from historians ensued. "In Herbert's case, things had been out in the open for a long time; all that needs illuminating is the minds of the would-be outing revolutionaries. Media hunting dogs and young careerists want to pass judgement on the lives of the rich and famous with the aid of secret police files," comments Yaroslav Kurski.
Heti Vilaggazdasag, 17.08.2006 (Hungary)
Tamas Laszlo Papp is equally disgusted by Günter Grass' confession and the fact that filmmaker Istvan Szabo was revealed to be a former secret police informant. "Pride kept them silent for so long. Grass and Szabo are regarded in intellectual circles as artistic and moral authorities, they were constantly surrounded by a following of school kids, admirers and pleasantly purring critics huddling up to them. It would have been inappropriate to criticise the holy cows of the literary salons and film cultural idols. ... Their artistic merits remains untouched by their confessions, but this cannot be said of their human and moral status. How can someone demand that we tackle the demons of our past when he himself was for decades on end incapable of taking responsibility and admitting a disreputable chapter of his life?"
Il Foglio, 19.08.2006 (Italy)
Amy Rosenthal interviews the Jewish American writer Cynthia Ozick on her most recent novel "The Din in the Head," and of course on Israel. "I hope that the Jewish state will find its Churchill," Ozick says. Discussing the Muslims in Europe, she quips: "I bet Europeans wish they had the Jews back, instead of their current minorities. In comparison to their Muslim counterparts, the Jews were exemplary citizens who made fantastic contributions to art, literature, music and the economy. Not to speak of all those who were more Italian than the Italians and more French than the French. And the others who didn't fit in where peaceful and calm, and didn't bother anyone."
De Groene Amsterdammer, 18.08.2006 (The Netherlands)
"After English and Mandarin, Farsi is now the third most popular language on the web, and the number of Iranian blogs is now estimated at over one hundred thousand," reports Marte Kaan. But the Iranian web is not "worldwide", and people who voice their ideas freely live dangerously. Kaan quotes Internet activist Jaadi: "Not only have several bloggers been imprisoned and tortured In recent years, the authorities have also introduced increasingly tight filters. For instance, if you type the word 'women' into Google in Iran, the words 'access denied' appear. This censorship comes about not only out of a fear of the women's movement, but also with the intent of blocking 'immoral' websites. This is taken to such extremes that for instance you can't access the website of the University of Virginia from Iran."
Polityka, 19.08.2006 (Poland)
In the wake of debate around the exhibition "Erzwungene Wege" (forced departures - more here and here) at Berlin's Centre Against Expulsion and Günter Grass' avowal that he was a member of the Waffen SS (more here), Adam Krzeminski reflects on Poland's relationship with Germany, and on the policies of Poland's ruling party, the PiS. "The obstinate helplessness of our politicians can further the rapprochement between elites in Germany and Russia. Our huffiness and taciturnity only help to build the bridge that will overarch us." For Krzeminski, a joint exhibition on the theme of expulsions - building on the "Flight, Expulsion, Integration" project of the German Historical Museum – would be an important step forward. Because "in the absence of a German-Polish dialogue and historical debate, we risk provincial ego-centrism and a lack of appreciation for the fate of the other."
Die Weltwoche, 17.08.2006 (Switzerland)
Hanspeter Born has had an interesting discussion with Saudi sociologist Mai Yamani, whose field of interest includes young British Muslims: "On the websites, at the universities and in the mosques, the Middle East is the central topic for these young Muslims. What they see as attacks on Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Iran and now Lebanon are in their view all part of a Western strategy aimed at the Islamic world. These young people are trapped between their existence as citizens of the UK and Europe on the one hand, where they enjoy freedom of speech and a democratic system, and their inherited Arab or Muslim identity on the other, which they see as an Umma, an imaginary community of all Muslims."
Al Ahram Weekly, 17.08.2006 (Egypt)
What do hiphoppers like Mos Def, The Roots and Hidden Force have in common? They're all practising Muslims. Michael Mumisa of the University of Birmingham has spoken with Muneera and Sakina of Poetic Pilgrimage, to find out more on the story. "Instead of heavy gold chains on their necks they wore hand-crafted wooden Sufi prayer beads, and their heads were covered in fashionable headscarves according to Islamic requirements. 'We try to make hijab appear the coolest thing in the world to our young fans,' they told me. 'We have received a number of emails from a lot of young girls in the UK, USA, and Canada telling us that they did not like putting on hijab until they listened to our Rap music about hijab and the way we Rap about it. We tell them in our music that hijab is cool and they should not be ashamed of it.' It was clear that I was talking to very intelligent and dedicated young ladies."
Talking to Nermeen Al-Mufti, the linguist, philosopher and Bush critic Noam Chomsky declares the United States a participant in a Middle Eastern war for which there is "no moral or legal justification". Primary among Washington's plans for the region, Chomsky states, "is the traditional commitment to control the world's major energy resources. Those who do not fall in line can expect to be targets of subversion or aggression. That should not be surprising... But it is worth bearing in mind that Israel can go just as far as its protector in Washington permits and supports."
The Spectator, 18.08.2006 (UK)
After taking a series of flights, Rod Liddle wonders if it isn't time to standardise security regulations at airports. In London he couldn't even take his nicotine chewing gum on board! "At JFK you were not allowed to board a plane with biscuits, even if they were in an unopened packet. I assume that stricture went for all biscuits: I tried with some Hobnobs, but you may have better luck with, say, Morning Coffee. Whereas eight miles away, at La Guardia, baby milk and — bizarrely — computer games were considered perfectly safe. At O'Hare, in Chicago, you were suddenly allowed to carry Gatorade, and at Pittsburgh the staff were so bored I don’t think they’d have cared if you had a particle accelerator in your backpack."
The New Yorker, 28.08.2006 (USA)
Paul Goldberger presents the Denver Art Museum, architect Daniel Libeskind's most recent building. As opposed to his project for Ground Zero, the museum integrates many of Libeskind's ideas and visions – evidently much to people's approval. "George Thorn, a developer who worked with the museum and others to erect the condominiums, says that the units that sold most easily were not the ones that offer a distant view of the Rockies, as is usually the case with Denver real estate, but the ones that face the museum. It’s easy to see why. Many of these places have big windows that look right into the side of Libeskind's crystalline shards, a mere fifty feet away. Perhaps this view is what Libeskind had in mind all along. From there, the museum no longer feels like a piece of architecture. It is more like an enormous titanium sculpture that was created to decorate your living room."
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The Republicans are waging a war against women, the New York Magazine declares. Perhaps it's because women are so unabashed about reading porn in public - that's according to publisher Beatriz de Moura in El Pais Semanal, at least. Polityka remembers Operation Reinhard. Tensions are growing between Poland and Hungary as Victor Orban spreads his influence, prompting ruminations on East European absurdity from both Elet es Irodalom and salon.eu.sk. Wired is keeping its eyes peeled on the only unassuming sounding Utah Data Center.
In Telerama, Benjamin Stora grabs hold of the Algerian boomerang. In Eurozine, Slavenka Drakulic tells the Venetians that they should be very scared of Chinese money. Bela Tarr tells the Frankfurter Rundschau and the Berliner Zeitung that his "Turin Horse", which ends in total darkness was not intended to depress. In die Welt, historian Dan Diner cannot agree with Timothy Snyder's "Bloodlands": National Socialism was not like Communism - because of Auschwitz.
In Perfil author Martin Kohn explains why Argentina would be less
Argentinian if it won back the Falklands. In Il sole 24 ore, Armando
Massarenti describes the Italians as a pack of illiterates sitting atop a
treasure trove. Polityka introduces the Polish bestseller of the season:
Danuta Walesa's autobiography. L'Express looks into the state of
Japanese literature one year after Fukushima.
In Merkur, Stephan Wackwitz muses on poetry and absurdity in Tiflis. Outlook India happens on the 1980s Indian answer to "The Artist". Bloomberg Businessweek climbs into the cuckoo's nest with the German Samwar brothers. Salon.eu.sk learns how to line the pockets of a Slovenian politician. In the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Navid Kermani reports back impressed from the Karachi Literature Festival. 
In La Vie des idees, historian Anastassios Anastassiadis explains why we should go easy on Greece. Author Aleksandar Hemon describes in Guernica how ethnic identity is indoctrinated in the classroom in Bosnia and Herzogovina. In Eurozine, Klaus-Michael Bogdal examines how Europe invented the Gypsies. Elet es Irodalon praises the hygiene obsession of German journalists. And Polityka pinpoints Polish schizophrenia.
The New Republic sees a war being waged in the USA against women's rights. For Rue89, people who put naked women on the front page of a newspaper should not be surprised if they go to jail. In Elet es Irodalom, historian Mirta Nunez Daaz-Balart explains why the wounds of the Franco regime never healed. In Eurozine, Stephen Holmes and Ivan Krastev see little in common between the protests in Russia and those in the Arab world.
In Letras Libras Enrique Krauze and Javier Sicilia fight over anarchy levels. In Elet es Irodalom Balint Kadar wants Budapest to jump on the Berlin bandwagon. In Le Monde Imre Kertesz has given up practically all hope for a democratic Hungary. Polityka ponders poetic inspiration and Wislawa Szymborska's "I don't know". In Espressso, Umberto Eco gets eschatological.
Poland's youth have taken to the streets to protest against Acta and Donald Tusk has listened, Polityka explains. Himal and the Economist report on the repression of homosexuality in the Muslim world. Outlook India doesn't understand why there will be no "Dragon Tattoo" film in India. And in Eurozine, Slavenka Drakulic looks at how close the Serbs are to eating grass.
In the French Huffington Post, philosopher Catherine Clement explains why the griot Youssou N'Dour had next to no chance of becoming Senegal's president. Peter Sloterdijk (in Le Monde) and Umberto Eco (in Espresso) share their thoughts about forgetting. Al Ahram examines the post-electoral depression of Egypt's young revolutionaries. And in Eurozine, Kenan Malik defends freedom of opinion against those who want the world to go to sleep.
Il Sole Ore weeps at the death of a laughing Vincenzo Consolo. In Babelia, Javier Goma Lanzon cries: Praise me, please! Osteuropa asks: Hungaria, quo vadis? The newborn French Huffington Post heralds the birth of the individual in the wake of the Arab Spring. Outlook India is infuriated by the cowardliness of Indian politicians in the face of religious fanatics.
In Nepszabadsag the dramatist György Spiro recognises 19th century France in Hungary today. Peter Nadas, though, in Lettre International and salon.eu.sk, is holding out hope for his country's modernisation. In Open Democracy, Boris Akunin and Alexei Navalny wish Russia was as influential as America - or China. And in Lettras Libras, Peter Hamill compares Mexico with a mafia film by the Maquis de Sade.
Are books about to become a sort of author-translator wiki, asks Il Sole 24 Ore. Rue 89 reports on the "Tango Wars" in downtown Buenos Aires. Elet es Irodalom posits a future for political poetry. In Merkur, Mikhail Shishkin encounters Russian pain in Switzerland. Die Welt discovers the terror of the new inside the collapse of the old in Andrea Breth's staging of Isaak Babel's "Maria". And Poetry Foundation waits for refugees in Lampedusa. 
Technology Review sees Apple as the next Big Brother. In Eurozine, Per Wirten still fears the demons of the European project. Al Ahram Weekly features Youssef Rakha's sarcastic "The honourable citizen manifesto". Revista Piaui profiles Iraqi-Norwegian geologist Farouk Al-Kasim. Slate.fr comments on the free e-book versions of Celine's work. And Die Welt celebrates the return of Palais Schaumburg.
Andre Glucksman in Tagesspiegel looks at the impact of the Putinist plague on Russia and Europe. In Letras Libras Martin Caparros celebrates the Kindle as book. György Dalos has little hope that Hungary's intellectuals can help get their country out of the doldrums. Le Monde finds Cioran with his head up the skirt of a young German woman. The NYT celebrates the spread of N'Ko, the West African text messaging alphabet.
MicroMega cheers recent landmark Mafia convictions in Milan. Volltext champions Hermann Broch. Elet es Irodalom calls the Orban government’s attack on cultural heritage "Talibanisation". Magyar Narancs is ambiguous about new negotiations with the IMF. Telerama recommends the icon of anti-colonialism Frantz Fanon. Salon.eu.sk quips about the dubious election results in Russia, and voices in the German press mark the passing of Christa Wolf. And in the Anglophone press Wired profiles Jeff Bezos, while the Columbia Journalism Review polemicises the future of internet journalism.