Culture
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The world next door | Eurozine
When Anu, a young Hindu nurse, slips into a blue burqa to meet her Muslim lover Shiaz in Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light (2024), it is not the consequence of religious conversion but a form of tactical camouflage. The act offers a striking commentary on Mumbai, a city long celebrated for its liberalism and cosmopolitanism, where the search…
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Artur Dron on faith, hope and love
His first poetry collection at nineteen, his second at twenty-two, then a collection of award-winning prose, at twenty-five – the geography of Artur Dron’s life is already remarkable. Born and raised in Pidmykhailivtsi in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, he studied at the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv. Then the start of the full-scale invasion interrupted his journalism Master’s studies; Dron…
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Searching for the ‘republic of possibility’
In June 2024, Kenya’s President William Ruto announced that he was going to withdraw a finance bill that, via tax increases, would have pushed the cost of basic commodities even further out of reach. His hand was forced by over a month of biweekly street protests, primarily led by Gen Z, across most of Kenya’s 47 counties – an event…
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Bread baked in someone else’s oven
One’s mother tongue is the greatest comfort blanket, an intimacy like no other, in which we feel most at ease and secure alongside others who speak and think in our unique and shared code. Language is also a structure in which the systems devised to organise a given reality are reflected. More poetically put, every language is a home, in…
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America’s political trauma | Eurozine
Gary Gerstle, historian and Paul Mellon Professor of American History Emeritus, Director of Research in American History and Emeritus Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, UK, considers American history since the fall of communism through the prism of the Civil War in conversation with IWM Rector, Misha Glenny. Misha Glenny: Thank you all very much for coming to this session…
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Symbiotic culture and repression | Eurozine
Vladimir Putin’s favourite exhibition, laconically called ‘Russia’, took centre stage in Moscow’s cultural scene from November 2023 to July 2024. Located in VDNKh, a 325-hectare exhibition and recreation complex built in 1939 during the Stalin era to showcase Soviet economic, industrial, and agricultural achievements, the exhibition megalomaniacally praised Putin and his reign. Each of the 89 regions of Russia, plus…
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Displacement is an extra limb that I carry
During the horrifying, long stretch of the genocidal war on Gaza, we did not have the privilege or the time to sit with our feelings. Surviving was a priority over processing our emotions. During the few weeks of the ceasefire in January, I slowly began to navigate my feelings, attempting to crawl out of the shell cupping my heart. It…
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„Gównodziennikarstwo”: Władza patrzy na ręce dziennikarzom
W efekcie w jednym rogu ringu stoją ci, którzy są dobrze wyedukowani, raczej zamożni i samodzielni, a w drugim – mniej uprzywilejowani, a więc nienadążający za rozwojem i potrzebujący opieki państwa zarówno w obszarze ekonomicznym, jak i tożsamościowym. Oczywiście, że widać tu napięcie klasowe. Jak to wpływa na stan mediów? Otóż przytłaczająca ich większość, jak również reklamodawcy, reprezentuje w Polsce…
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Everyday amulets | Eurozine
House keys are prosaic objects that carry extraordinary significance as symbols of home, security, place. Think for a moment: what do your house keys unlock? Do you always carry your house keys with you when you leave the house, or is your door usually unlocked? Do you, like me, sometimes check for the keys in your pocket or your bag…
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The double-edged sword | Eurozine
One of the most important stories of the last decade is the influence of identity politics on the Western world. This form of politics exists at the theoretical level, as well as in public policy, but also less subtly in popular culture. The popular, or populist, expression of some of these ideas is often referred to as ‘woke’. In fact,…
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