Columns

Frauenkirche Munich


Get the latest from our columnists here. There is something for everyone, with topics ranging from French cinema to Lusophone culture, and from dead languages to the Sanremo Music Festival.


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Europe, Does Michel Houellebecq still matter? Geordie Cheetham Europe, Does Michel Houellebecq still matter? Geordie Cheetham

Does Michel Houellebecq Still Matter? Part II:  The H.P. Lovecraft biography

In this article, Geordie Cheetham looks at Houellebecq’s first published work, a biography of the American author H. P. Lovecraft. How does disgust with the modern world become a fitting object of literary study, when Houellebecq approvingly cites Lovecraft’s disdain for all forms of realism? And what does a corpse surrounded by shopping trolleys Nouvelles Galeries have to do with it?

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Europe, Where Love Lies Mila Edensor, European Columnist Europe, Where Love Lies Mila Edensor, European Columnist

Where Love Lies I: The West’s Affair with the Exotic.

We are told that love is a primal force: innate, ahistorical, transcendental and above society. But how can something be truly innate if it is a concept that exists within the act of telling? CLC Columnist Mila Edensor explores such intriguing questions in this excellent analysis of early modern Portuguese poetry. From the unrequited love of men in the late 1500s, to the ‘passport bro’ of today, Edensor skilfully explores what this obscure poetry can mean for us today.

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Bas(qu)ing in difference: the Beauty of the Basque identity II: Pin(tx)ch me, a life changing food experience

In this entertaining excursion of an article, CLC columnist Freya John takes us on a culinary tour of Bilbao as she recounts her love affair with the ‘incredible, edible, small delights: pintxos.’

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​​Bas(qu)ing in Difference: the Beauty of the Basque Identity I: The Enigma of Euskera

In the first instalment of her column, European columnist Freya John explores the mystery of Euskera, the language of the Basque Country. From its linguistic background, to its sociopolitical significance, John offers an insightful overview of this minor language.

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German, Germanistik: In search of the female writer... Maddie Hazelden, Columnist German, Germanistik: In search of the female writer... Maddie Hazelden, Columnist

Germanistik II: In search of the female writer… along the shelves of the bookshop

Through her insightful comparison of Fontane’s Effie Briest with Gabriele Reuter’s Aus guter Familie, German columnist Maddie Hazelden traces both the shelves of a bookshop and the history of literature in this intriguing critique of German literary practices.

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Beyond Brave Little Blighty, Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia Sofia Johanson, Russia, Eastern Europe & Central Asia Editor Beyond Brave Little Blighty, Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia Sofia Johanson, Russia, Eastern Europe & Central Asia Editor

Beyond Brave Little Blighty II: The Truth

In the second instalment of her column, Sofia Johanson comments on two films that deal with the near-impossible task of publicising what was going on in the concentration camps during the war.

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Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Beyond Brave Little Blighty Sofia Johanson, Russia, Eastern Europe & Central Asia Editor Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Beyond Brave Little Blighty Sofia Johanson, Russia, Eastern Europe & Central Asia Editor

Beyond Brave Little Blighty I: Occupation

In her first instalment of her column ‘Beyond Brave Little Blighty’, REECA editor Sofia Johanson considers filmic representations of Nazi occupation in Eastern and Western Europe, through the lens of Dutch and Polish examples.

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Germanistik: In search of the female writer… Part I: Through the endless corridors of the (Bonn) Universität

In this first article of her column, Germanistik: In search of the female writer, Maddie Hazelden critically explores the inequality in gender representation in the Germanistik curriculum at the University of Bonn.

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