Fergal Lenehan - Böcker

‘From Covid-19 we have been reminded, through tragedy and suffering, that we have a shared, globalized vulnerability common to all humanity … The lessons of necessity and solidarity learned during the pandemic must now inform a European-led transition to a just and ecologically sustainable society in its aftermath.’President Michael D. Higgins is one of the few public intellectuals to engage regularly with the abstract idea of an alternative European space, and to consistently reimagine it. Yet public discussions regarding Ireland’s closer links with the European Union often remain purely utilitarian and economic, or take place only within academia. Here, in Reclaiming the European Street, in over twenty lively discourses, President Higgins lays out his vision for Europe.This is the first gathering of all the President’s Europe-themed speeches from 2016 to 2020. They deal with wide-ranging contemporary issues, from the 1916 Centenary celebrations to the Brexit decision of June 2016 and the Covid-19 pandemic: the latter, in particular, has shunted the European Union into a worldwide arena through its role in helping Member States cope with economic and human fallout.As well as translations into Irish, French and German, a comprehensive introduction by the editors gives context to the speeches within wider Irish and European intellectual history. Stamped by President Higgins’ inimitable intellectual rigour and empathy, these documents also express fundamental concerns on behalf of the Irish people. His generous pluralist view of history and embracing of a liberal secular society make this volume essential reading for any citizen seeking to understand the role of Ireland within the European Union.

Elizabeth Shaw, who has until now remained all but unknown in her native Ireland, was one of the most celebrated children’s authors in East Germany, producing a series of masterful children’s books that have stayed in print since her death in 1992. She was also a deeply complex, passionate woman, a brilliant author, and a gifted artist beyond the confines of Children’s literature. Born in Belfast in 1920 to Irish parents, Shaw was a life-long outsider, sheltered from the poverty and violence of the city at the liberal, left-wing Royal Academy. At the age of 12, her family moved to Bedford in England, and she would eventally go on to attend the Chelsea School of Art, impressing her teachers and absorbing the social and political struggles of her time. In 1939, she was called up to the war effort and worked in the London telephone exchange. Having published sketches in 1940 and contributed to the London left-wing magazines Our Time and Lilliput, she exhibited works in 1943 at the Artists’ International Association in London. In 1944l, she met the Swiss-born émigré artist and communist René Graetz. They married in 1946 and, like other German exiles opposed to National Socialism, decided to help build a better, socialist Germany. Deeply inflected by the politics of East Germany, she worked as a caricaturist with Neues Deutschland, the newspaper of East Germany’s ruling Socialist Unity Party, before going on to write 23 enromously successful books for children, making her a household name across Germany. By times elusive, moving and deeply revealing, this is a finely tuned memoir by one of Ireland’s great forgotten artists - now illustrated with many never-before-published illustrations, and with an insightful and enligtening afterword by Fergal Lenehan and Sabine Egger which delves into the under-explored aspects of Shaw’s relationship to Stalinism, the GDR, and those around her.

This book examines German media representations of Ireland from 1946 to 2010, from the post-war period to the years of the so-called «Celtic Tiger» and Ireland’s subsequent economic downturn. It charts both the patterns and the inconsistencies in depictions of Ireland in the weekly publications Der Spiegel and Die Zeit, as well as in German cinema.Cultural stereotypes may be employed in the furthering of a problematic cultural essentialism; however, they may also be used to «play» with readers’ or viewers’ expectations. They may be juxtaposed with newer cultural generalizations, or re-moulded to fit a transformed cultural reality. The representations of Ireland examined in this book are revealed as inherently ideological, consistently locating Ireland outside of an evolving European societal «normalcy». While this is often presented as something highly positive, the book argues that it implicitly places Germany at the centre of Europe and may be viewed as a type of excluding Europeanism.

Der Band befasst sich mit Zusammenhängen von Sprache, Interkulturalität und Digitalität. Die neun Kapitel untersuchen, wie sich Interkulturalität in verschiedenen Settings digitaler Kommunikation – von YouTube über Tripadvisor bis Twitter – manifestiert und wie sie mit kommunikativen Strategien und komplexen Identitätsdarstellungen verwoben wird.The contributions to this volume address the blending of language, interculturality and digitality. The nine chapters investigate how (inter)culturality is manifested in various settings of digital communication – from YouTube to Tripadvisor and Twitter – and how it becomes intertwined with sets of communicative strategies and complex displays of identity..

The Internet has penetrated material reality to such an extent that it is now often impossible to disentangle the material from the virtual. In this postdigital scenario, the encounter with ›newness‹ becomes accessible at the touch of a button, 24/7. Learning becomes a lifewide experience which allows for the emergence of new culturalities. The contributors to this volume engage with cultural changes brought about by an intensified digitalization process in the context of formal education but also shed light on unexpected contexts in which informal learning experiences take place every day, strengthening diasporas, creating new connections and transforming ourselves and our societies.