MEMBER BLOG TAG: marguerite abouet
| Thursday, April 26, 2007 12:46AM | | | | The Problem of Europe | Tags: Jane Kramer, At Home in Europe, Marguerite Abouet, Zafer Senocak, Janne Teller, Ilija Trojanow, Geert Mak
| | | | The first panel I attended, “At Home in Europe” was ostensibly about the problem of home, but was really about the problem of Europe. And Europe is a problem.
That “peninsula that passes itself off as a continent” (as panelist Ilija Trojanow called it) consists of variously-sized pockets of people who are more likely to identify themselves, for example, as Roman or Neapolitan or Venetian than Italian. That is, unless they are confronted by a foreigner, in which case all these separate peoples agree they are all definitely Italian and you, the foreigner, not only are not Italian but also never will be. Because to be Italian (or German, French, Austrian, etc.) is something you are, and it is not something you can... | | | | | |
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