Books published by ibidem-Verlag, Jessica Haunschild u Christian Schon

This timely book seeks to contribute to the debate on the transfer of values, rules, and practices by European actors to former soviet countries. The actors in focus include multilateral organizations, such as the European Union, the Council of Europe, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, as well as European governments and non-governmental organizations. The contributions in this collection address different aspects of the export or transfer of values, such as democracy, human rights, and the rule of law, as well as rules and practices in the fields of education and migration management, examining motives, mechanisms, and effects of the European engagement.

From New National to World English Literature offers a personal perspective on the evolution of a major cultural movement that began with decolonisation, continued with the assertion of African, West Indian, Commonwealth, and other literatures, and has evolved through postcolonial to world or international English literature. Bruce King''s extensive Introduction discusses the personalities, writers, issues, and contexts of what he considers the most important change in culture since Modernism. The Introduction also explains the forty-five essays and reviews he has selected from his publications to illustrate the development, stages, and major national literatures, authors, and themes. Special attention is given to Nigerian, West Indian, Australian, Indian, and Pakistani literature. Topics and issues include: "Derry" Jeffares organising Commonwealth and Anglo-Irish studies, the emergence and aesthetics of African literature, the question of the existence of a "Nigerian literature", the place of the new universities in decolonising culture, the influence of the Rockefeller Foundation, the contrasting models of American and Irish literatures, ethnicity as response , the changing nature of exile and diasporas, the role of Jewish writers, minorities, Muslim objections to free speech, The Satanic Verses controversy, traditionalism versus modernism, the dangers of cultural assertion, and the relationships between nationalism and internationalism. Authors discussed include Chinua Achebe, Ahmed Ali, Margaret Atwood, David Dabydeen, K N Daruwalla, Nissim Ezekiel, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Almagir Hashmi, Attia Hosain, A D Hope, Adil Jussawalla, Arun Kolatkar, Hanif Kureishi, Dom Moraes, Frank Moorhouse, V S Naipaul, Abioseh Nicol, Gabriel Okara, Mike Phillips, Mordechai Richler, Salman Rushdie, Wole Soyinka, Garth St Omer, Kamila Shamsie, Randolph Stow, Jeet Thayil, and Derek Walcott.

Recognition and Ethics in World Literature is a critical comparative study of contemporary world literature, focused on the importance of the ethical turn (or return) in literary theory. It considers the shape and development of the ethical engagement of the novels of Amitav Ghosh, Chimamanda Adichie, Caryl Phillips, Kazuo Ishiguro, Zadie Smith, and JM Coetzee, exploring the overlaps and divergences between Levinasian/Derridean and Aristotelian ethics as they are brought to bear on literature. The characters'' recognitions and emotional responses in these texts are integral to the unfolding of their ethical concerns, and the ethics thus explored is often marked by the complexity and impurity characteristic of the tragic. A view of recognition is advanced that shifts it from the more usual political understanding in the field towards seeing it as a formal device used to unfold an ethical knowledge peculiar to fictional narrative, and particularly suitable for the concerns of world literature authors in its interconnection of the universal and the particular-a binary that has been crucial in postcolonialism and remains important for the wider field of world literature. The analysis unfolds with a focus on three broad ethical themes-religion, the memory of violence, and the human-eliciting the novelists'' contributions to these debates through the investigation of the functioning of moments of recognition in their novels.

This book illustrates why and how informality in governance is not necessarily transitory or temporary, but a constant in most systems of the world. The difference between various administrative structures is not whether informality is present or not, but where, in which areas, it is located. The essays gathered in this volume demonstrate that, in some cases, informal mechanisms are self-protective, while, in others, they are perceived as ''normal'' responses and a set of tactics for individuals, classes, and communities to respond to unusual demands. Where expectations-of the state, a company, or some commission-are too far from citizens'' existing models of normative behavior, informal behavior continues to thrive. Indeed, new tactics are adopted in order to cope with disjunctions between theory and reality as well as to serve as contrasts to values imposed by a center of power, such as a central state, a city administration, or the management board of a large company. The focus of the papers contained in this book is two-fold and rests on an analysis of phenomena manifesting themselves "beyond" and "in spite of" the state. The first part deals with areas where the state is not always, or only marginally, active whilst the second analyzes activities performed in conflict with state regulations, i.e. behavior often studied from a criminal and legal standpoint.

Nadia Anwar presents a compelling reading framework for the study and analysis of selected post-independence Nigerian dramas, using the conceptual parameters of metatheatre, a theatrical strategy which foregrounds the process of play-making by breaking the dramatic illusion. She argues that distancing, as a function of metatheatre, creates a balanced theatrical experience and environment in terms of the emotive and cognitive levels of reception of a particular performance. Anwar''s book is the first in-depth study of the concept of metatheatre with reference to Nigerian drama including Wole Soyinka''s Death and the King''s Horseman (1975) and King Baabu (2002), Ola Rotimi''s Kurunmi (1971) and Hopes of the Living Dead (1988), Femi Osofisan''s The Chattering and the Song (1977) and Women of Owu (2006), Esiaba Irobi''s Hangmen Also Die (1989), and Stella ''Dia Oyedepo''s A Play That Was Never to Be (1998). The perspectives of Bertolt Brecht (1936), Thomas J. Scheff (1963), and other theoreticians of dramatic distancing and metatheatre are used in the analyses and, where required, challenged through appropriate contextual and theoretical adjustments. The book is the first attempt to illustrate how Brechtian approach to the display and generation of emotions can be revised through Scheff''s model of emotional balance.

Serbia is still widely thought of as an unfinished state, whose people struggle to establish a compelling identity narrative in answer to the question ''who are we?''. While existing literature has over-analyzed Serbian nationalism, the Serbian public sphere remains largely ignored. This engaging and timely book fills this gap by giving context to the persistent and overwhelming dialogue between opposing factions on the identity spectrum in Serbia. Russell-Omaljev''s focus on elite discourses provides a fresh perspective on this contentious subject. It offers an original understanding of the competing arguments surrounding ''First'' and ''Other'' Serbia and of the contested visions of Serbian national identity and broader European identity.By closely examining the identity vocabulary of Serbian elites and the opposing ways in which these elites view the use of labels such as ''anti-Serbian'', ''patriot'', and ''traitor'', this book provides a vital lesson in post-conflict nation-building and raises important questions about the symbolic representations of political and cultural identities. A much-needed and compelling intervention in the Serbian identity discourse, Russell-Omaljev''s work is a must-read for any researcher on the Western Balkans.

The voice traverses Beckett''s work in its entirety, defining its space and its structure. Emanating from an indeterminate source situated outside the narrators and characters, while permeating the very words they utter, it proves to be incessant. It can alternatively be violently intrusive, or embody a calming presence. Literary creation will be charged with transforming the mortification it inflicts into a vivifying relationship to language. In the exploration undertaken here, Lacanian psychoanalysis offers the means to approach the voice''s multiple and fundamentally paradoxical facets with regards to language that founds the subject''s vital relation to existence. Far from seeking to impose a rigid and purely abstract framework, this study aims to highlight the singularity and complexity of Beckett''s work, and to outline a potentially vast field of investigation

This book ventures a critical gaze at the image of the European Union beyond the crisis. Keeping in mind that crises constitute organic parts of all systems, the volume attempts to apprehend the EU''s losses, gains, challenges, and opportunities deriving from the crisis and assesses what constitutes a viable and integrated exit from the current predicament. Moreover, through dealing with the EU as an everlasting process rather than a completed edifice, the collection aims at charting the conceptual weaknesses which resulted in a crisis so acute and long-lasting and at opening a discourse on the future and the required reconceptualization of the EU.The project is based on three large and interconnected thematic pillars that relate to the European Union after the crisis:- Facets of parliamentarism in the EU in the context of the crisis,- Political cohesion and institutional integration,- Perceptions, images, stereotypes, and their impact on the process of social and political integration of the EU.

This monograph discloses the estate-based social structure of contemporary Russia by way of outlining the principles of the USSR''s peculiar estate system, and explaining the new social estates of post-Soviet Russia. Simon Kordonsky distinguishes and describes in particular the currently existing Russian service and support estates. He introduces the notions of a resource-based state and resource-based economy as the political and economic foundations for Russian society''s estate structure. His study demonstrates, moreover, how the method of inventing and institutionalizing threats plays a dominant role in the mode of distribution of scarce resources in such a social system. The book shows fundamental differences between resource- as well as threat-based economies, on the one side, and traditional risk-based economies, on the other, and discloses what this means for Russia''s future.

Womit identifizierten sich Bürger der Sowjetunion? Wie grenzten sie sich voneinander ab? Destabilisierten Massenaufläufe die sowjetische Ordnung? Wie entstanden informelle Gruppierungen in einer Gesellschaft uniformer Konformität? Welchen Einfluss nahmen neue Medien und mediale Vernetzung auf die Entwicklung der multinationalen sowjetischen Gesellschaft? Was blieb, als nach dem Zusammenbruch der sowjetische Rahmen fiel?Manfred Zeller schreibt am Beispiel der Fans sowjetischer Fußballmannschaften aus Moskau (Spartak, Dynamo, ZSKA) und Kiew (Dynamo) eine Geschichte von Gemeinschaft und Gegnerschaft im poststalinistischen Vielvölkerreich. Er untersucht, zu welchen Gruppen sich sowjetische Bürger zusammenschlossen und gegen wen sie sich wandten. Seine Monographie handelt von komplexen Loyalitäten in der multinationalen Sowjetunion - und von der Hassliebe zwischen Kiew und Moskau.Zeller leistet einen wichtigen Beitrag zur Erforschung der sowjetischen Populärkultur nach Stalins Tod sowie zur aktuellen Debatte um Antagonismen im postsowjetischen Raum. „Moskau gegen Kiew" war zu sowjetischer Zeit noch keine Frage von Krieg und Frieden, jedoch war es im Fußball damals schon eine Frage von Sieg und Niederlage sowie eines Gefühls von ""Wir gegen die"" im komplexen multinationalen Setting der Region.

Witchcraft is very much alive in today''s post-communist societies. Stemming from ancient rural traditions and influenced by modern New Age concepts, it has kept its function as a vibrant cultural code to combat the adversities of everyday life. Intricately linked to the Orthodox church and its rituals, the magic discourse serves as a recourse for those in distress, a mechanism to counter-balance misfortune and, sometimes, a powerful medium for acts of aggression.In this fascinating book, Alexandra Tataran skillfully re-contextualizes the vast and heterogenuous discourse on contemporary witchcraft. She shows how magic, divination, and religious rituals are adapted to the complex mechanisms of modern mentalities and urban living in the specific historical and social context of post-communist countries. Based on years of first-hand fieldwork, Tataran offers fascinating insights into the experience of individuals deeming themselves bewitched and argues that the practice can also teach us a lot about particular forms of adapting traditions and resorting to pre-existing cultural models.

It is a hard psychological fact that the desire for pleasure is the ultimate factor in most of human decision-making. But as dominant as the pleasure principle has been in the cultural development of mankind, its impact has so far never been fully acknowledged. In the hands of a powerful minority that controls global capital flows, pleasure has been turned into the most profitable item for sale, preying on the consumerist desires it helped to create.Re-evaluating the very notion of ''pleasure'' and assessing its often sinister influence on the course of our civilization, The Pursuit of Pleasure unveils how the determinants of human behavior are now in the hands of global marketers whose sole aim is the maximization of profit, not the personal development of their customers. This powerful book shows how the overcoming of the pleasure principle through the management of pleasure can be the foundation of a new humanist culture in which people are conscious and aware of their choices.