A GOOD EUROPEAN
EIGHT SHORT STORIES
At the latest since the Enlightenment in Europe, the concept of freedom has been of enormous importance to European identity. But the promise that this term held for a long time has apparently lost its charisma. For the people of Europe, being free is either too self-evident - or has taken on too many, often very different meanings. Freedom today has an indistinct value, conceptions of it often collide seemingly irreconcilably.
How shall we deal with this state of affairs? How shall we reconcile awareness of tradition and self-determination? How can permeable borders be reconciled with secure coexistence? Is peace freedom enough when one has emerged from war? Is capitalism freedom if one has previously undergone socialism?
Eight European authors endeavour to provide narrative answers to these questions. Their short stories reflect their different experiences and systemic influences. But there is a certain anxiety inherent in almost all their stories - fear of the loss of freedom, scepticism about what freedom stands for today, shame at the distinctions Europe is making.
How shall we deal with this state of affairs? How shall we reconcile awareness of tradition and self-determination? How can permeable borders be reconciled with secure coexistence? Is peace freedom enough when one has emerged from war? Is capitalism freedom if one has previously undergone socialism?
Eight European authors endeavour to provide narrative answers to these questions. Their short stories reflect their different experiences and systemic influences. But there is a certain anxiety inherent in almost all their stories - fear of the loss of freedom, scepticism about what freedom stands for today, shame at the distinctions Europe is making.
Game for a Zoo
The narrator in Ilija Trojanow's story is also powerless in the end. After his dream of a zoo in the Bulgarian province has come true - thanks to friendship with socialist-dictatorial fraternal states in Africa - his animals become the victims of hungry neighbours in post-communism. A biting parable on the emotional state of a victim of the turn to free-market policies.
Dragonflies
Tanja Dückers tells of how unfree and strained relations within Europe still are, as a result of the events of the Second World War. The deeds and experiences of the grandfathers still thwart the harmless holiday flirting of their adolescent grandchildren. The connection between history and desire is still a tense balancing act.
Dad will join us later
Nasrin Siege narrates from the perspective of a little girl who fled Aleppo with her mother. The traumatisation caused by the war in Syria is conveyed very simply through the childlike words. And yet: arrival in Germany brings with it the hope of healing.
Simple, little Things
Vladimir Asenijević has written a parable about how Europeans deal with their own privileges. In this work, an insect becomes a symbol of the unknown, the other, the underprivileged. The narrator's reactions - disgust, empathy, compassion, complacency and self-loathing - form a condensation of European arrogance and ineptitude.
A Good European
In her story, Zinaida Lindén addresses Europe’s arrogant elevation of its values to the measure of all things - thus rendering those who do not master its codes un-free. Correct, stylish and good enough? Almost impossible for a female Russian academic. Lindén looks at the subtle distinctions that core Europe (still) allows itself to make.
On the run
Wilfried N’Sondé has written an impromptu about an overnight bus ride from Berlin to Paris. In his story, the narrator witnesses an incident on the periphery, a small drama that makes it clear that freedom of movement no longer applies to everyone, man or woman, in the Schengen area either.
Paranoia
Arian Leka casts an elliptical spotlight on everyday life in Albania, a candidate for EU membership. Whether young people or senior citizens, journalists or café-goers: everyone senses conspiracy and surveillance, everything seems to be on the verge of disaster, nowhere are there signs of hope and power to act. A life paralysed under the perceived diktat of adaptation.
Counter-Attack
Oliver Rohe has a solicitor tell the story of his client, a German of Lebanese origin. It is an equally familiar and shocking tale of innocence, biased police work, discrimination and radicalisation. Islamist terror appears as a distorted mirror image of interaction with the other.
The narrator in Ilija Trojanow's story is also powerless in the end. After his dream of a zoo in the Bulgarian province has come true - thanks to friendship with socialist-dictatorial fraternal states in Africa - his animals become the victims of hungry neighbours in post-communism. A biting parable on the emotional state of a victim of the turn to free-market policies.
Dragonflies
Tanja Dückers tells of how unfree and strained relations within Europe still are, as a result of the events of the Second World War. The deeds and experiences of the grandfathers still thwart the harmless holiday flirting of their adolescent grandchildren. The connection between history and desire is still a tense balancing act.
Dad will join us later
Nasrin Siege narrates from the perspective of a little girl who fled Aleppo with her mother. The traumatisation caused by the war in Syria is conveyed very simply through the childlike words. And yet: arrival in Germany brings with it the hope of healing.
Simple, little Things
Vladimir Asenijević has written a parable about how Europeans deal with their own privileges. In this work, an insect becomes a symbol of the unknown, the other, the underprivileged. The narrator's reactions - disgust, empathy, compassion, complacency and self-loathing - form a condensation of European arrogance and ineptitude.
A Good European
In her story, Zinaida Lindén addresses Europe’s arrogant elevation of its values to the measure of all things - thus rendering those who do not master its codes un-free. Correct, stylish and good enough? Almost impossible for a female Russian academic. Lindén looks at the subtle distinctions that core Europe (still) allows itself to make.
On the run
Wilfried N’Sondé has written an impromptu about an overnight bus ride from Berlin to Paris. In his story, the narrator witnesses an incident on the periphery, a small drama that makes it clear that freedom of movement no longer applies to everyone, man or woman, in the Schengen area either.
Paranoia
Arian Leka casts an elliptical spotlight on everyday life in Albania, a candidate for EU membership. Whether young people or senior citizens, journalists or café-goers: everyone senses conspiracy and surveillance, everything seems to be on the verge of disaster, nowhere are there signs of hope and power to act. A life paralysed under the perceived diktat of adaptation.
Counter-Attack
Oliver Rohe has a solicitor tell the story of his client, a German of Lebanese origin. It is an equally familiar and shocking tale of innocence, biased police work, discrimination and radicalisation. Islamist terror appears as a distorted mirror image of interaction with the other.
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