CEU Press

Ursula Keller – Germany
Writing Europe
Ilma Rakusa – Switzerland
Impressions and Conversations during the Intervals
Guðbergur Bergsson – Island
Europe Untitled
Andrei Bitov – Russia
The Literary Hero as Hero
Hans Maarten van den Brink – The Netherlands
Language and Terror
Mircea Cărtărescu – Romania
Europe Has the Shape of My Brain
Stefan Chwin – Poland
The Nursery School Teacher from Tversk Street
Aleš Debeljak – Slovenia
Concentric Circles of Identity
Jörn Donner – Finnland
Europe from the Fringe
Mario Fortunato – Italy
Europe?
Eugenio Fuentes – Spain
The Western Bloc
Jens Christian Grøndahl – Denmark
Notes of an Escapist
Durs Grünbein – Germany
Europa’s Lovers
Daniela Hodrová – Czech Republic
Woven Into the Web
Panos Ioannides – Cyprus
Europe in My Prose and My Theatrical Work
Mirela Ivanova – Bulgaria
Europe — One Way of Reading It
Lídia Jorge – Portugal
A Sort of Huge Portugal
Dževad Karahasan – Bosnia
Europe Writes in Time
Fatos Lubonja – Albania
Between the Local and the Universal
Adolf Muschg – Switzerland
Europe or “Eleuthera, City of the Mnemosyne”
Péter Nádas – Hungary
In the Intimacy of Literary Writing
Emine Sevgi Özdamar – Turkey
Guest Faces
Geir Pollen – Norway
On the European Ingredient in the Text
Jean Rouaud – France
In Memory of Ernst Wiechert
Robert Schindel – Austria
“We’re All Right.” Europe’s Influence on My Writing
Ivan Štrpka – Slovakia
Oh, Children Smeared with Honey and with Blood
Richard Swartz – Sweden
The Light Falls on Me
Nikos Themelis – Greece
Looking for a Widened Self-Awareness
Emil Tode – Estonia
Europe, a Blot of Ink
Colm Toíbín – Ireland
The Future of Europe
Jean-Philippe Toussaint – Belgium
You Are Leaving the American Sector
Dubravka Ugrešić – Croatia
European Literature as a Eurovision Song Contest
Dragan Velikić – Serbia
B-Europe
Tomas Venclova – Lithuania
What Can Lithuania Give to Present-Day Europe
Māra Zālīte – Latvia
Unfinished Thoughts
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.
The editors have created a unique literary project, a milestone in the vitally necessary cultural discourse about Europe.
Ursula Keller is publicist, film-maker, dramaturg. She is programme director at the Literaturhaus Hamburg.
Ilma Rakusa is writer and publicist, holds a PhD in literature and is the translator of numerous works from the Russian, French, Hungarian, and the Serbo-Croat.