There are countless books on “how to write”, and the number of topics they cover, the types of audiences they cater to, the dreams and ambitions they may help or fail to realize, the styles they use, the tricks of the trade they offer (for free or for sale), the profiles of authors that take the risk of giving advice to future competitors, is even bigger. Continue reading
If popular culture is culture for the millions, entertaining and easy to understand, many great readers and critics are well aware of the fact that this fundamental openness is not to be confused with shallowness or lack of sophistication. Continue reading
History did not end after the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and since 9/11 many new forms of historical consciousness as well as experiencing time and history have emerged, sometimes rather slowly, in the wake of theoretical efforts to restore the focus on our ever changing world, but occasionally also very abruptly and unexpectedly. Continue reading
Today we witness a sharp rise in autobiographical series, probably with Girls as the most popular example. Writer Lena Dunham, who plays the main character Hannah Horvath, has often been confused with her creation. Actor, stand-up comedian and screenwriter Louis C.K. also wrote several series – Lucky Louie (2006) and Louie (2010) – around a character that resembled him very strongly. In the Australian series Please Like Me, screenwriter Josh Thomas plays the main character Josh. Continue reading
My apologies for the silly title of this review, which is the umpteenth variation on a worn-out cliché, but this time it perfectly does the job since the new book by Michael Kasper, a fascinating American book artist and essential middleman in the literary dialogue between Belgium and the US, is precisely anything but a translation. Continue reading
Particularly interesting for cultural studies students with an interest in Eastern Europe and Russia is the lecture series on Russia’s place in the world organized by KU Leuven’s Centre for Russian Studies in collaboration with Bozar. Continue reading
The publisher calls it an “introduction” to the works, the authors, the currents, and the contexts of the European avant-gardes in the period 1905-1935 (three decades that in Anglo-Saxon criticism are often called “High Modernism”, a powerful streamlining of the exceptional dynamism and diversity of these years). But this is really not the best word to qualify the “portable guide” proposed by one of the leading voices in the field. Continue reading
