Over the past decade, Europe has seen a rise in right-wing, populist parties promoting a politics... more Over the past decade, Europe has seen a rise in right-wing, populist parties promoting a politics of exclusionary nationalism. The values propagated by many of these parties are opposed to the fundamental ideals of the European Union and instead of promoting integration and multiculturalism, they seek to limit immigration and to erect new walls and borders to strengthen a "Fortress Europe." This tendency is strengthened both by a rejection of globalization and also the fear of increased immigration and what both might do to a country's economy and culture. Moreover, the populist desire to return to an ethnic, nation-state threatens many principles of a liberal democracy. Hungary's Viktor Orbán has gone so far as to embrace the ideology of an illiberal democracy, which no longer emphasizes the importance of freedom of the press and freedom of assembly, in favor of the ethnostate. This essay also explores the dangers of this trend toward renewed borders and boundaries and also considers what history and literature can teach us about nationalist movements and the dangers or isolation. Albert Camus' 1947 novel The Plague is a particularly instructive text in that it offers the allegory of a debilitating plague that oppresses the city of Oran and forces its residents into isolation and desperation. While often read as a commentary on French resistance, the novel also has parallels to the rise of ethnic nationalism and how denial of its dangers can lead to its spread. Finally, the article concludes by advocating for a fairer approach to globalization as well as a continued adherence to the pluralist values upon which the European Union was founded.
In 2016, the German production company funk began a new weekly series of short documentary videos... more In 2016, the German production company funk began a new weekly series of short documentary videos, Germania, designed to explore German identity and the reality of those living with a migration background. Although one in five people in Germany today have a migratory background, the focus of the series, according to promotional materials, was not the immigration debate (which has consumed much of public policy since 2015) but rather the fact that Germany has long been a land of immigration and is today firmly a multicultural society. Each video, ranging between 5 and 15 minutes, portrays a well-known young artist who talks in first-person about identity, their roots, and the geographies that have shaped and impacted them as well as their perspectives on Germany. The series eschews the traditional documentary format in favor of digital media and a YouTube/TikTok aesthetic. This article explores a select number of these videos and analyzes the concept of identity that they convey as well as the format chosen as a kind of synthesis of traditional documentary and digital media.
Since its founding in 2013 as conservative party opposed to Germany’s policies during the Eurocri... more Since its founding in 2013 as conservative party opposed to Germany’s policies during the Eurocrisis, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) has moved to the far-right and, like the populist movement Pegida which shares many of the same goals, has increasingly become a nativist, xenophobic party. While scholars have analyzed their anti-immigrant and nationalist platform, this article examines their call for an ethnopluralist nation-state. Both the AfD and Pegida claim they are not racist nor are calling for an ethnonationalist state (Germany for the Germans), but what they are advocating for is an organicist state that rejects multiculturalism and religious plurality.
The 2015 immigration wave brought profound changes to European society, both in the form of a wel... more The 2015 immigration wave brought profound changes to European society, both in the form of a welcoming culture (Willkommenskultur) but also in the rise of xenophobia and of right-wing populism. Over the past few years, much attention has rightly been paid to literary and essayistic works by immigrant writers dealing with the challenges they have encountered in “Fortress Europe.” At the same time, however, there has been a reckoning within the privileged classes in Europe as their complacent reality has been disturbed by confrontations with war, poverty and the immigration that it causes. This article will explore two recent, highly-acclaimed novels, Jenny Erpenbeck’s Go, Gone, Went and Bodo Kirchhoff’s Widerfahrnis and, following the work of Emmanuel Levinas, analyze how confrontations with refugees both disturb their reality and lead to personal transformation.
In this article, we look at the fissures in United Europe from both sides of the region where a p... more In this article, we look at the fissures in United Europe from both sides of the region where a post-Cold War ‘Middle/Central Europe’ should have been forged. How do leading German and Polish newspapers treat the categories of ‘Central’ or ‘Middle’ Europe relative to the concept of the Eastern–Western European divide and what are the discourses associated with these perspectives? At the time of a looming redefinition of the entire European project, what can media reports from Germany and Poland tell us about its future? We conclude that the media narratives in these two countries portend further tensions for European unity, since the new divisions now overlap the old ones. Our findings have implications for the future of democracy in the newly democratic countries of Central and Eastern Europe, including Poland.
Navid Kermani is one of Germany's foremost writers and scholars of Islam. His essays and literary... more Navid Kermani is one of Germany's foremost writers and scholars of Islam. His essays and literary works illuminate the concurrent debates in the Federal Republic on immigration and multiculturalism as well as help counter a growing trend toward Islamophobia. His writing represents, drawing on Leslie Adelson's theories, a new "Muslim turn" in contemporary Ger-man literature, which lends this body of writing a degree of worldliness and a global perspective that many postwar texts have lacked. In this essay, I argue that Kermani's literary protagonists as well as his own essayistic positions explore ways of belonging for Muslims in a post-secular and post-national Germany. In particular, this essay analyzes two of Kermani's fictional works, his 2007 novel Kurzmitteilung and the 2006 children's book Ayda, Bär und Hase, as well as his essays and interviews in order to explore not only the Muslim turn in contemporary German literature but also narratological constructions and responses to questions of identity and assimilation.
Since its founding in 2014, Pegida has positioned itself as a populist movement striving to limit... more Since its founding in 2014, Pegida has positioned itself as a populist movement striving to limit immigration and to preserve Germany's cultural heritage. It has also aligned itself with other right-wing European political groups whose exclusionary views are rooted in theories of a civilizational clash between the West and the Islamic world. Pegida's pushback against immigration also includes appeals to resist globalization and the growth of multiculturalism by embracing what Verena Stolcke has termed " cultural fundamentalism. " This ideology assumes cultural hierarchies and segregates religious and ethnic groups spatially and geographical as a means to maintain cultural uniformity. In doing so, Pegida posits that it is not racist or xenophobic, rather that it seeks solidarity in maintaining Western cultural values. The danger in Pegida's ideology is that it rejects not only constitutional principles and notions of cultural pluralism, but that it furthers a cultural divide that need not exist and, in fact, embraces an exclusionary nationalism that is not unlike the values that they purport to reject.
Over the past quarter century globalization and regional conflicts have resulted in a remarkable ... more Over the past quarter century globalization and regional conflicts have resulted in a remarkable wave of immigration and increased diversity within the European Union. As the EU seeks to both expand and unify its member states under the banner of " unity in diversity, " growing discontent and nationalism within individual nations threaten a unified Europe. New narratives by young immigrant writers, particularly from Eastern Europe, shed light on important discourses about nationalism, assimilation and the quest for a home and Heimat. Many of these works portray characters who embrace European culture but reject normative categories of national identity. Particularly important for them is the ability to move seamlessly between linguistic cultures and spaces. They value not only the power of languages and literature but also the importance of cultural knowledge and learning as an important mechanism for social advancement. This essay will examine recent German-language novels by Olga Grjasnowa (b. 1984, Baku, Azerbijian) and Alina Bronsky (b. 1978, Yekaterinburg, Russia) whose works portray characters who renegotiate belonging and integration in a postnational world.
African Immigrants in Contemporary Spanish Texts, Apr 2015
Fourteen kilometers." With these two words indicating the distance between the North African shor... more Fourteen kilometers." With these two words indicating the distance between the North African shore and Spain, Moroccan-American writer Laila Lalami sets her collection of short stories Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits (2005) in the Strait of Gibraltar and the figurative space that lies between the two cultures. The wreckage of a patera, a rickety boat used by immigrants in this boundary water, serves as the point of departure for her stories, and this event situates the Strait as an important spatial metaphor for referencing the complex relation between the Maghreb and Europe in contemporary literature. This geographical setting functions metaphorically as a way to signal a narratological discourse that goes beyond the confinement of neatly defined borders-whether these borders are understood in geographical, political or cultural terms-in favor of expressing the conflicting dilemmas of subjects compelled to live in contact with the diverse social and cultural realities on both sides of the Strait. Thus, this geographical referent serves as the paradigm to represent the interconnection of two cultural and political realities that, like the waters of the Mediterranean Sea, are in constant motion. The Strait, which Lara N. Dotson-Renta has defined as a "nebulous space between the two coasts" (429), represents the site where historically eastern and western influences have mixed. In that regard, the Strait serves as an important metaphor in contemporary narratives to challenge the essentialist concept of identity that Edward Said identified as paramount to the construction of "Orientalist" ideology (26).
In a speech in May 2000 at Santa Maria de Feira, Portugal, Nicole Fontaine, then President of the... more In a speech in May 2000 at Santa Maria de Feira, Portugal, Nicole Fontaine, then President of the European Commission, proclaimed United in Diversity as the official motto of the European Union. According to the European Union itself the motto signifies that "…Europeans have come together…to work for peace and prosperity, while at the same time being enriched by the continent's many different cultures, traditions and languages." As we enter the second decade of the 21 st century, however, the work toward peace and prosperity has encountered new challenges: from the rise of right-wing anti-EU parties, to the illegal immigration symbolized by the tragedies on Lampedusa and in Ceuta and Melilla, to Europe's on-going relationship with its Muslims immigrants. While studies have suggested that the importance of religion in Europe and the West has declined over the past few decades, the recent rise of more religious immigrants and refugees to the EU has challenged this thinking. The increased secularization of Western society was once thought to be the norm in the new millennium, as societies moved further away from identities based on religion in favor of what Jürgen Habermas has called "Occidental rationalism," rooted in Enlightenment thinking. However Habermas himself has come to reconsider this idea and in 2008 published an essay arguing instead that we now live in a "post-secular" society: "global changes and the visible conflicts that flare up in connection with religious issues give us reason to doubt whether the relevance of religion has waned." As a result, new tensions have arisen between secularist thinkers in the tradition of the Enlightenment, who reject the imposition of religious ideology and wish to maintain a strong separation between church and state, and multiculturalists, who emphasize the importance of individual freedom, tolerance of difference and the plurality of cultures. But how can Europe reconcile this division, stay true to its Enlightened heritage and embrace a unity in diversity?
Over the past decade, Europe has seen a rise in right-wing, populist parties promoting a politics... more Over the past decade, Europe has seen a rise in right-wing, populist parties promoting a politics of exclusionary nationalism. The values propagated by many of these parties are opposed to the fundamental ideals of the European Union and instead of promoting integration and multiculturalism, they seek to limit immigration and to erect new walls and borders to strengthen a "Fortress Europe." This tendency is strengthened both by a rejection of globalization and also the fear of increased immigration and what both might do to a country's economy and culture. Moreover, the populist desire to return to an ethnic, nation-state threatens many principles of a liberal democracy. Hungary's Viktor Orbán has gone so far as to embrace the ideology of an illiberal democracy, which no longer emphasizes the importance of freedom of the press and freedom of assembly, in favor of the ethnostate. This essay also explores the dangers of this trend toward renewed borders and boundaries and also considers what history and literature can teach us about nationalist movements and the dangers or isolation. Albert Camus' 1947 novel The Plague is a particularly instructive text in that it offers the allegory of a debilitating plague that oppresses the city of Oran and forces its residents into isolation and desperation. While often read as a commentary on French resistance, the novel also has parallels to the rise of ethnic nationalism and how denial of its dangers can lead to its spread. Finally, the article concludes by advocating for a fairer approach to globalization as well as a continued adherence to the pluralist values upon which the European Union was founded.
In 2016, the German production company funk began a new weekly series of short documentary videos... more In 2016, the German production company funk began a new weekly series of short documentary videos, Germania, designed to explore German identity and the reality of those living with a migration background. Although one in five people in Germany today have a migratory background, the focus of the series, according to promotional materials, was not the immigration debate (which has consumed much of public policy since 2015) but rather the fact that Germany has long been a land of immigration and is today firmly a multicultural society. Each video, ranging between 5 and 15 minutes, portrays a well-known young artist who talks in first-person about identity, their roots, and the geographies that have shaped and impacted them as well as their perspectives on Germany. The series eschews the traditional documentary format in favor of digital media and a YouTube/TikTok aesthetic. This article explores a select number of these videos and analyzes the concept of identity that they convey as well as the format chosen as a kind of synthesis of traditional documentary and digital media.
Since its founding in 2013 as conservative party opposed to Germany’s policies during the Eurocri... more Since its founding in 2013 as conservative party opposed to Germany’s policies during the Eurocrisis, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) has moved to the far-right and, like the populist movement Pegida which shares many of the same goals, has increasingly become a nativist, xenophobic party. While scholars have analyzed their anti-immigrant and nationalist platform, this article examines their call for an ethnopluralist nation-state. Both the AfD and Pegida claim they are not racist nor are calling for an ethnonationalist state (Germany for the Germans), but what they are advocating for is an organicist state that rejects multiculturalism and religious plurality.
The 2015 immigration wave brought profound changes to European society, both in the form of a wel... more The 2015 immigration wave brought profound changes to European society, both in the form of a welcoming culture (Willkommenskultur) but also in the rise of xenophobia and of right-wing populism. Over the past few years, much attention has rightly been paid to literary and essayistic works by immigrant writers dealing with the challenges they have encountered in “Fortress Europe.” At the same time, however, there has been a reckoning within the privileged classes in Europe as their complacent reality has been disturbed by confrontations with war, poverty and the immigration that it causes. This article will explore two recent, highly-acclaimed novels, Jenny Erpenbeck’s Go, Gone, Went and Bodo Kirchhoff’s Widerfahrnis and, following the work of Emmanuel Levinas, analyze how confrontations with refugees both disturb their reality and lead to personal transformation.
In this article, we look at the fissures in United Europe from both sides of the region where a p... more In this article, we look at the fissures in United Europe from both sides of the region where a post-Cold War ‘Middle/Central Europe’ should have been forged. How do leading German and Polish newspapers treat the categories of ‘Central’ or ‘Middle’ Europe relative to the concept of the Eastern–Western European divide and what are the discourses associated with these perspectives? At the time of a looming redefinition of the entire European project, what can media reports from Germany and Poland tell us about its future? We conclude that the media narratives in these two countries portend further tensions for European unity, since the new divisions now overlap the old ones. Our findings have implications for the future of democracy in the newly democratic countries of Central and Eastern Europe, including Poland.
Navid Kermani is one of Germany's foremost writers and scholars of Islam. His essays and literary... more Navid Kermani is one of Germany's foremost writers and scholars of Islam. His essays and literary works illuminate the concurrent debates in the Federal Republic on immigration and multiculturalism as well as help counter a growing trend toward Islamophobia. His writing represents, drawing on Leslie Adelson's theories, a new "Muslim turn" in contemporary Ger-man literature, which lends this body of writing a degree of worldliness and a global perspective that many postwar texts have lacked. In this essay, I argue that Kermani's literary protagonists as well as his own essayistic positions explore ways of belonging for Muslims in a post-secular and post-national Germany. In particular, this essay analyzes two of Kermani's fictional works, his 2007 novel Kurzmitteilung and the 2006 children's book Ayda, Bär und Hase, as well as his essays and interviews in order to explore not only the Muslim turn in contemporary German literature but also narratological constructions and responses to questions of identity and assimilation.
Since its founding in 2014, Pegida has positioned itself as a populist movement striving to limit... more Since its founding in 2014, Pegida has positioned itself as a populist movement striving to limit immigration and to preserve Germany's cultural heritage. It has also aligned itself with other right-wing European political groups whose exclusionary views are rooted in theories of a civilizational clash between the West and the Islamic world. Pegida's pushback against immigration also includes appeals to resist globalization and the growth of multiculturalism by embracing what Verena Stolcke has termed " cultural fundamentalism. " This ideology assumes cultural hierarchies and segregates religious and ethnic groups spatially and geographical as a means to maintain cultural uniformity. In doing so, Pegida posits that it is not racist or xenophobic, rather that it seeks solidarity in maintaining Western cultural values. The danger in Pegida's ideology is that it rejects not only constitutional principles and notions of cultural pluralism, but that it furthers a cultural divide that need not exist and, in fact, embraces an exclusionary nationalism that is not unlike the values that they purport to reject.
Over the past quarter century globalization and regional conflicts have resulted in a remarkable ... more Over the past quarter century globalization and regional conflicts have resulted in a remarkable wave of immigration and increased diversity within the European Union. As the EU seeks to both expand and unify its member states under the banner of " unity in diversity, " growing discontent and nationalism within individual nations threaten a unified Europe. New narratives by young immigrant writers, particularly from Eastern Europe, shed light on important discourses about nationalism, assimilation and the quest for a home and Heimat. Many of these works portray characters who embrace European culture but reject normative categories of national identity. Particularly important for them is the ability to move seamlessly between linguistic cultures and spaces. They value not only the power of languages and literature but also the importance of cultural knowledge and learning as an important mechanism for social advancement. This essay will examine recent German-language novels by Olga Grjasnowa (b. 1984, Baku, Azerbijian) and Alina Bronsky (b. 1978, Yekaterinburg, Russia) whose works portray characters who renegotiate belonging and integration in a postnational world.
African Immigrants in Contemporary Spanish Texts, Apr 2015
Fourteen kilometers." With these two words indicating the distance between the North African shor... more Fourteen kilometers." With these two words indicating the distance between the North African shore and Spain, Moroccan-American writer Laila Lalami sets her collection of short stories Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits (2005) in the Strait of Gibraltar and the figurative space that lies between the two cultures. The wreckage of a patera, a rickety boat used by immigrants in this boundary water, serves as the point of departure for her stories, and this event situates the Strait as an important spatial metaphor for referencing the complex relation between the Maghreb and Europe in contemporary literature. This geographical setting functions metaphorically as a way to signal a narratological discourse that goes beyond the confinement of neatly defined borders-whether these borders are understood in geographical, political or cultural terms-in favor of expressing the conflicting dilemmas of subjects compelled to live in contact with the diverse social and cultural realities on both sides of the Strait. Thus, this geographical referent serves as the paradigm to represent the interconnection of two cultural and political realities that, like the waters of the Mediterranean Sea, are in constant motion. The Strait, which Lara N. Dotson-Renta has defined as a "nebulous space between the two coasts" (429), represents the site where historically eastern and western influences have mixed. In that regard, the Strait serves as an important metaphor in contemporary narratives to challenge the essentialist concept of identity that Edward Said identified as paramount to the construction of "Orientalist" ideology (26).
In a speech in May 2000 at Santa Maria de Feira, Portugal, Nicole Fontaine, then President of the... more In a speech in May 2000 at Santa Maria de Feira, Portugal, Nicole Fontaine, then President of the European Commission, proclaimed United in Diversity as the official motto of the European Union. According to the European Union itself the motto signifies that "…Europeans have come together…to work for peace and prosperity, while at the same time being enriched by the continent's many different cultures, traditions and languages." As we enter the second decade of the 21 st century, however, the work toward peace and prosperity has encountered new challenges: from the rise of right-wing anti-EU parties, to the illegal immigration symbolized by the tragedies on Lampedusa and in Ceuta and Melilla, to Europe's on-going relationship with its Muslims immigrants. While studies have suggested that the importance of religion in Europe and the West has declined over the past few decades, the recent rise of more religious immigrants and refugees to the EU has challenged this thinking. The increased secularization of Western society was once thought to be the norm in the new millennium, as societies moved further away from identities based on religion in favor of what Jürgen Habermas has called "Occidental rationalism," rooted in Enlightenment thinking. However Habermas himself has come to reconsider this idea and in 2008 published an essay arguing instead that we now live in a "post-secular" society: "global changes and the visible conflicts that flare up in connection with religious issues give us reason to doubt whether the relevance of religion has waned." As a result, new tensions have arisen between secularist thinkers in the tradition of the Enlightenment, who reject the imposition of religious ideology and wish to maintain a strong separation between church and state, and multiculturalists, who emphasize the importance of individual freedom, tolerance of difference and the plurality of cultures. But how can Europe reconcile this division, stay true to its Enlightened heritage and embrace a unity in diversity?
Abbas Khider (b. 1973) has established himself as one of the leading literary voices of refugees ... more Abbas Khider (b. 1973) has established himself as one of the leading literary voices of refugees and marginalised communities in Germany today. Born in Baghdad, Iraq, Khider was at a young age a vocal critic of Saddam Hussein’s regime, during which he was jailed and tortured before fleeing the country. As a refugee, he crossed many countries before arriving in Germany, where he was eventually granted asylum. His own life experiences have served as a departure point for his novels, which similarly explore the refugee experience and the challenges that migrants to Europe face.
... DAV. H. LEVYSSOHN NORMAN, Mr. A. DE PINTO, Mr. GIJSB. M. VAN DER LINDEN, Jhr. Mr. J. DE WITTE... more ... DAV. H. LEVYSSOHN NORMAN, Mr. A. DE PINTO, Mr. GIJSB. M. VAN DER LINDEN, Jhr. Mr. J. DE WITTE VAN CITTERS bn Mr. J. KAPPEYNE VAN DE COPPELLO. Vijftiende Weel , 1868. ... Hoor Jhr. Mr. J. de Witte van Citters . Advocaat te 'a Gravenhaee . ...
"The Nibelungen material," David J. Levin asserts toward the beginning of his book, &qu... more "The Nibelungen material," David J. Levin asserts toward the beginning of his book, "is ideologically rife or historically overdetermined" (p. 4). A found-ing myth of pan-German culture in the nineteenth century, the Nibelungen saga spurred two prominent appropriations-Richard Wagner's ...
Since its founding in 2014, Pegida has positioned itself as a populist movement striving to limit... more Since its founding in 2014, Pegida has positioned itself as a populist movement striving to limit immigration and to preserve Germany’s cultural heritage. It has also aligned itself with other right-wing European political groups whose exclusionary views are rooted in theories of a civilizational clash between the West and the Islamic world. Pegida’s pushback against immigration also includes appeals to resist globalization and the growth of multiculturalism by embracing what Verena Stolcke has termed “cultural fundamentalism.” This ideology assumes cultural hierarchies and segregates religious and ethnic groups spatially and geographical as a means to maintain cultural uniformity. In doing so, Pegida posits that it is not racist or xenophobic, rather that it seeks solidarity in maintaining Western cultural values. The danger in Pegida’s ideology is that it rejects not only constitutional principles and notions of cultural pluralism, but that it furthers a cultural divide that need ...
In this article, we look at the fissures in United Europe from both sides of the region where a p... more In this article, we look at the fissures in United Europe from both sides of the region where a post-Cold War 'Middle/Central Europe' should have been forged. How do leading German and Polish newspapers treat the categories of 'Central' or 'Middle' Europe relative to the concept of the Eastern-Western European divide and what are the discourses associated with these perspectives? At the time of a looming redefinition of the entire European project, what can media reports from Germany and Poland tell us about its future? We conclude that the media narratives in these two countries portend further tensions for European unity, since the new divisions now overlap the old ones. Our findings have implications for the future of democracy in the newly democratic countries of Central and Eastern Europe, including Poland.
Program of the workshop convened by Ivan Kalmar at the University of Toronto, November 18 and 19,... more Program of the workshop convened by Ivan Kalmar at the University of Toronto, November 18 and 19, 2017.
Uploads
Articles by David Coury