Archive for review

Postjugoslawische Familienaufstellung

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , , on 6 January 2018 by delclem

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Dragan Velikić auf den Spuren seiner Mutter in Pula – und überall.

Mutterbücher scheinen in der Literatur von Männern seltener zu sein als Vaterbücher. In Österreich zumindest gab es eine Zeitlang eine veritable Landplage von letzteren, aber es gab auch Peter Handkes Wunschloses Unglück, das den Ton für weitere Söhne setzte. Nicht ganz unähnlich geht es bei einem alten Bekannten Handkes zu, wenngleich weniger drastisch: Auch bei Dragan Velikić (*1953) soll ein autobiografischer Roman dem Leben der Mutter, eines jener “ungewöhnlichen kleinen Menschen”, die noch zu viel Anstand für ihr brutales Zeitalter hatten, nachträglich Gewicht und Bedeutung verleihen – und dahinter das eigene Schriftstellerwerden schildern. >> full text

Chaste bordello novel

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , on 26 May 2017 by delclem

Im Haus zur roten Laterne

Neuausgabe / new edition: Der heilige Skarabäus (1909) krabbelt wieder.
Rezension des “Unsittenromans” von Else Jerusalem aus Fin-de-siècle Wien.

Review in English below the German text. Illustration: poster of the film adaptation.
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The art Hitler dismissed as ‘filth’

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , on 12 March 2014 by delclem

Adolf Hitler and other Nazi officials at the Dada wall at the Degenerate Art exhibition, July 16, 19

“Degenerate Art”: The Attack on Modern Art in Nazi Germany, 1937. This New York exhibition revisits not only Germany’s ‘Degenerate Art’ show that destroyed so many artistic careers, but the Nazi rhetoric that made the exhibition possible. >review
(c) THE GUARDIAN, 2014

Freud’s Life & Legacy – in a Comic

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , , on 16 February 2014 by delclem

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“In recent years, the comic book genre has been applied to a wealth of graphic nonfiction for grownups, ranging from famous biographies to philosophy, but nowhere does the genre shine more exquisitely than in Freud — a magnificent biography-as-graphic-novel of the founding father of psychoanalysis by Swiss-born writer, economist, historian, and psychoanalyst Corinne Maier, illustrated by celebrated French cartoonist Anne Simon.”>full review (c) brainpickings.org 2014

“A History Lesson, Airbrushed”

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , , , on 19 January 2014 by delclem

Ganzseitiger Faxausdruck

Generation War, which was broadcast as a mini-series on German television last year, is perhaps more interesting as an artifact of the present than as a representation of the past. As tWW2 slips from living memory, as Germany asserts its dominant role in Europe with increasing confidence, and as long-suppressed information emerges from the archives of former Eastern bloc countries, the war’s cultural significance for Germans has shifted.”>review (c) NYT, 2014
>trailer (c) musicbox films

THE WORLD WITHOUT THE SHOTS OF SARAJEVO

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , , , , on 24 November 2013 by delclem

SARAJEWO_Attentat Kopie
A German novel imagines: what if ?
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How Europe Went To War

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , , on 30 October 2013 by delclem

sleepwalkers

 

How the lamps went out

 

“Strategy, bellicosity, blunder?

(…) A fresh look at the Great War’s deadly genesis.”

>Review of C. Clarks

bestselling book

The Sleepwalkers (2012)

(c) THE, 2012

“For those who can tell no tales”

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , , , , on 10 September 2013 by delclem

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Jasmila Zbanic‘s “brave drama commemorates the victims of atrocities in 1990s Bosnia, making a substantial impression despite a short running time. She commemorates the more than 3,000 Bosniaks murdered during ethnic cleansing in the Visegrad area in the 1990s, especially the women tortured in rape encampments.” Thus, her movie van be seen as a direct response to the nationalitic Potemkin Village project of another Bosnian director: Emir Kusturica. See the full review (c) variety.com 2013 Cf. the text on Kusturica in THE GUARDIAN, 2012

‘Shards’ – Leaving Bosnia (or not)

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , , , on 8 September 2013 by delclem

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“There is a long & important history of memoirs & fictions, and hybrids of the two, that address the aftermath of war (particularly the Yugoslav Succession Wars of the 1990s). Shards, the impressive first novel by Ismet Prcic, finds inventive ways to interrogate the anguish of enduring and then escaping Bosnia during the war (1992-95). The novel is constructed of fragments — shards — seemingly written by its main character, Ismet Prcic. Ismet grows up in Tuzla and manages to flee shortly before his induction into the “meat grinder” of the Bosnian infantry. He has survived and made his way to America, but is fractured by what he left behind.” >full review & illustration (c) NYT, 2011; interview with the author (c) Suhrkamp/youtube, 2013

 

“Mexiko Max”

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , , , on 28 July 2013 by delclem

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A “beautiful corpse” from the Habsburg collection is on display in Vienna.

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