Writing Europe

by Ursula Keller (Editor)

What do we mean by Europe? Thirty-three renowned authors from 33 European countries attempt an answer-in serious, ironic, skeptical, or optimistic tones. Their essays, written for the symposium held at the Literaturhaus Hamburg in 2003, reflect the astonishing diversity of European cultures. Not only are the style and experience of the individual authors remarkable for their distinctiveness, but their perspectives and views also appear to have little in common-at first glance.

358 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Larissa]

On "European Literature as a Eurovision Song Contest," by Dubravka Ugresic:

I picked this collection up because of an essay it contains by Dubravka Ugresic (I'll be reviewing a new essay collection of hers shortly). The essay, called "European Literature as a Eurovision Song Contest," is fantastic. Ugresic discusses nationality, nationalism, identity, authorship, and more both imaginatively and incisively. It's a short essay--if you have any interest in any of the topics above, I highly recommend you read it--it also provides useful a context/parallel for much of Ugresic's other writing. A particularly stand-out quote:

"Some ten years ago I had an elegant Yugoslav passport with a soft, flexible, dark red cover. I was a Yugoslav writer. Then the war came and--without asking me--the Croats thrust into my hand a blue Croatian passport...The new Croatian authorities expected from their citizens a prompt transformation of identity, as though the passport itself was a magic pill...With my new Croatian passport I abandoned my newly acquired "homeland" and set off into the world. Out there, with the gaiety of Eurovision Song Contest fans, I was immediately identified as a Croatian writer. I became the literary representative of a milieu that did not want me any more and which I did not want any more either. But still the label Croatian writer remained with me, like a permanent tattoo.

At this moment I possess a passport with a red cover, Dutch. I continue to wear the label of the literary representative of a country to which I am not connected even by a passport. Will my new passport make me a Dutch writer? I doubt it. Will my Dutch passport ever make it possible for me to reintegrate in Croatian literary ranks? I doubt it."