Past Debates

The Future?

On 26th May 2022, Debates on Europe hosted two events at the Deutsches Hygiene-Museum Dresden as part of the spring meeting of the German Academy for Language and Literature. Focal point of the two panels was the war in Ukraine and its implications.

The first panel featured Kateryna Mishchenko, Nicolai von Ondarza and Piotr Buras and discussed refugees, EU enlargement, and European ideals. Mishchenko stated that only recently, talking to another Ukrainian in Berlin, they felt as if they were “ambassadors of a dark future … or past … or some other temporality. But I am afraid we are talking about the future”. She also stressed that solidarity should not only be extended to refugees pouring into other countries: “I stay mentally in Ukraine and I think of the people who are there. And they also need solidarity.” As for so-called European ideals, Mishchenko spoke about how she has grown disenchanted with them long ago, for example when she witnessed people being prosecuted for saving men and women from the depths of the Mediterranean Sea. The panel was moderated by Eric Maurice.

Panel number two saw Mark Leonard, Sylvie Kauffman and Anton Shekhovtsov discuss the geopolitical shifts and consequences of the war in Ukraine as well as the discrepancy in the reactions to it: in and outside of Europe. Leonard argued that the reaction of the so-called global south to the war has to do with the legacy of colonialism and the fight for sovereignty – points that are usually not taken into account when Europeans discuss Russia and Ukraine. Shekhovtsov added that, in this broader, global sense, Ukrainians sometimes fail to ask themselves the question “Why do you think that everyone should immediately be interested in what’s going on in your country?” But he cautioned against the discursive shrinking of Europe to just Western Europe when talking about colonialism and imperialism. Lastly, Kauffman underlined the importance of the war’s outcome on relations with China. The panel was moderated by Osteuropa’s Volker Weichsel.

In cooperation with Deutsches Hygiene-Museum Dresden | Funded by the Cultural Foundation of the German Federal States

Vad gör litteraturen med sin frihet?

What use does literature make of its freedom?

In Eastern Europe, writers have for a long time played the role off truth-tellers and literature has been a corrective to repressive regimes’ twisted versions of both past and present. “Live not by lies” is the title of one of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s most famous essays. “Living in truth” was the dictum of Václav Havel, who thereby formulated not only a political programme, but also a literary project. This tradition is still very much alive and writers often engage in memory work neglected by media and universities.

At an event on 1 September 2021 in Gothenburg, Swedish and international writers read from their work and talked about what use literature actually makes of its often-apostrophized freedom. Participants included Sergei Lebedev (writer, Russia), Ida Börjel (writer, Sweden), Ola Larsmo (writer, Sweden), Sanne Kofod Olsen (dean of the faculty of fine and applied arts at the Gothenburg University), and Carl Henrik Fredriksson (programme director, Debates on Europe).

In connection to the event in Gothenburg, there was a one-day seminar held at Jonsered Manor: “Freedom of Expression & Politics of Memory – The Battle for History and the Fight for the Present”.

Thank you to University of Gothenburg , PEN Sweden, Gothenburg City Theatre & Författarförbundet for making the event in Gothenburg possible.

#ArchipelagoUSSR

Three different sets of values.
Three different selves.
Three different trajectories of delusions.

In cooperation with VoxEurop, Debates on Europe presented five essays on the breakup of the USSR. Viktar Martinovič from Belarus kicked off the series #ArchipelagoUSSR in December 2021 with his piece on the three lives he has lived so far, followed by essays penned by Sergey Lebedev, Kateryna Mishchenko, Aka Morchiladze, and Tatiana Țîbuleac.

You can view all five essays here.

Caucasus

Each year, Literaturhaus Zürich organises the International Literature Days, which push to the forefront a specific region in the world. In 2022, the festival took a closer look at the Caucasus. In collaboration with the Literaturhaus, Debates on Europe prepared a panel on the importance of literature and culture in conflict regions.

In what context does literature exist and flourish? How close or how far removed is literature from topical societal and political issues? And what can literature and art actually do in regions of conflict and in times of crisis? Due to the developments at the end of February 2022 these topics were more relevant than ever and the Ukrainian author Artem Chekh, who was planned to participate in the panel, wasn’t able to be with us.

The panel took place on 27 February and was held with Ana Kordzaia-Samadashvili, Maria Stepanova and Kateryna Mishchenko and was moderated by Zaal Andronikashvili.

Geteilte Heimaten

In 2021, the German Hygiene Museum in Dresden organised the ‘Geteilte Heimaten’ congress. Initially planned to take place in 2020, the congress went ahead online from 10-12 May 2021.

Our panel, ‘Between Critique and Cohesion. Art and Culture in Divided Societies’, featured author Jan Carson (Northern Ireland), writer and academic László Földényi (Hungary) and journalist Iryna Vidanava (Belarus). The event was moderated by Carl Henrik Fredriksson.