There are three reasons why the book is so compelling, and the quality of translation will be vital if this success is to continue in other languages. In the precision with which Mr Cole chooses words or phrases he is not unlike Gustave Flaubert, who sometimes took a week to write a single paragraph. Thus… Read More »
Jonathan Franzen in The New York Times: The simple fact of the matter is that trying to be perfectly likable is incompatible with loving relationships. Sooner or later, for example, you’re going to find yourself in a hideous, screaming fight, and you’ll hear coming out of your mouth things that you yourself don’t like at… Read More »
That is the title of a new book by Gareth Dale. If you are interested in economic history and the history of ideas you should check out the book. Or at least this review. The book is acclaimed as the first comprehensive book on the ideas and legacy of Karl Polanyi. If you have ever… Read More »
Helon Habila is a Nigerian novelist and poet. His first novel Waiting for an Angel won the Commonwealth Writers Prize (Best First Book, Africa Region) in 2003. His three choices for Nigeria are; 1. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe 2. The Man Died by Wole Soyinka 3. The Famished Road by Ben Okri From… Read More »
Farafina Trust will be holding a creative writing workshop in Lagos, organized by award-winning writer and creative director of Farafina Trust, Chimamanda Adichie, from May 20 to May 29 2010. The workshop is sponsored by Nigerian Breweries Plc. Guest writers who will co-teach the workshop alongside Adichie are the Caine Prize Winning Kenyan writer Binyavanga… Read More »
In a beautifully written piece over at the New York Review of Books blog, Tony Judt discusses what identity means in a cosmopolitan world. H/T Aleksandra Gadzala For a further discussion/problematisation of the concept see ‘Beyond “Identity”‘, by Rogers Brubaker and Frederick Cooper. Ungated pdf version available here.
The Berlin International Film Festival was a product of the Cold War. The US military administration wanted to bring a touch of glamour to a West Berlin that had survived the Soviet blockade. Since then, the festival has gained a reputation for championing political, provocative movies, and has been no stranger to scandal. The Berlinale… Read More »
If you like movies, or if you are in any way interested in them, you should be listening to Mark Kermode‘s film review on BBC 5 live. Kermode wrote a PhD thesis on horror fiction, and his best movie is The Exorcist. The passion with which he rants about movies he hates is matched by… Read More »
At the African Studies Centre in Leiden, The Netherlands: The twelfth edition of Africa in the Picture, with as main theme “Crisis, what crisis?”, will be held from 9 to 14 September 2009 . During the festival, more than 50 films produced in Africa or by directors with African roots will be shown in Amsterdam and… Read More »
CALL FOR PAPERS Afro-Beat Journal (afro-beatjournal.org) is an new online journal, based out of NYU, devoted to the study of Global African artistic and cultural forms. It is an interactive, multimedia journal that will feature works on and the work of musicians, visual artists, painters, poets, and writers. We invite scholars and practitioners to submit… Read More »