A brilliant book -- delicate comparative observation marks this study of how social transition undergoes diverse cultural interpretation. While 'requiem' literally means a mass for the dead, Charity Scribner associates it with sorrow for abused and broken ideals. She successfully balances sober judgment on communism's downfall with compassion, leaving room for inconsistent feelings within our collective memory. Her intercultural approach detects distinctions that any dogmatic one-sidedness would ignore: nostalgic, mournful justifications on the one hand, and rude dismissal on the other. Finally, it is an honest book. Only a serious confrontation with grief can make separations of this kind humanly bearable, where ideals are trampled upon and broken by reality. -- Oskar Negt, coauthor of Public Sphere and Experience A genuinely wide-ranging study of post-Wall Eastern and Western Europe, full of fresh juxtapositions and new insights. While centered on the former East Germany, Scribner's illuminating meditations on post-1989 art, literature, film, and museum practices elucidate both what is peculiar and what is paradigmatic about the GDR case. -- Katie Trumpener, Professor of Comparative Literature and English, Yale University Charity Scribner's Requiem for Communism is a beautifully written book. It is a meditation on transition, failed utopias, and the twentieth century, rendered from the comparative perspective of how literary texts and artistic works intervene to force disclosures on the ideological forces and political events that attended the dissolution of the socialist project in Western and Eastern Europe. What makes this book especially startling and invigorating is the subtlety of Scribner's reading and the lucidity of her writing; no words are wasted, and every observation is sharpened by the force of her analysis. This book should be read avidly -- not as an epitaph for the 'second world' but as a timely contribution to the study of the role artists and writers play in bringing home transitions' multiple messages in this moment of uncertainty and doubt. -- Okwui Enwezor, Artistic Director, Documenta 11, Kassel, Germany, and Visiting Professor of the History of Art and Architecture, University of Pittsburgh
Charity Scribner is the 1954 Career Development Professor of European Cultural Studies in the department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at MIT.
"A brilliant book--delicate comparative observation marks this study of how social transition undergoes diverse cultural interpretation. While 'requiem' literally means a mass for the dead, Charity Scribner associates it with sorrow for abused and broken ideals. She successfully balances sober judgment on communism's downfall with compassion, leaving room for inconsistent feelings within our collective memory. Her intercultural approach detects distinctions that any dogmatic one-sidedness would ignore: nostalgic, mournful justifications on the one hand, and rude dismissal on the other. Finally, it is an honest book. Only a serious confrontation with grief can make separations of this kind humanly bearable, where ideals are trampled upon and broken by reality." Oskar Negt , coauthor of Public Sphere and Experience "A genuinely wide-ranging study of post-Wall Eastern and Western Europe, full of fresh juxtapositions and new insights. While centered on the former East Germany, Scribner's illuminating meditations on post-1989 art, literature, film, and museum practices elucidate both what is peculiar and what is paradigmatic about the GDR case." Katie Trumpener , Professor of Comparative Literature and English, Yale University "Charity Scribner's Requiem for Communism is a beautifully written book. It is a meditation on transition, failed utopias, and the twentieth century, rendered from the comparative perspective of how literary texts and artistic works intervene to force disclosures on the ideological forces and political events that attended the dissolution of the socialist project in Western and Eastern Europe. What makes this book especially startling and invigorating is the subtlety of Scribner's reading and the lucidity of her writing; no words are wasted, and every observation is sharpened by the force of her analysis. This book should be read avidly--not as an epitaph for the 'second world' but as a timely contribution to the study of the role artists and writers play in bringing home transitions' multiple messages in this moment of uncertainty and doubt." Okwui Enwezor , Artistic Director, Documenta 11, Kassel, Germany, and Visiting Professor of the History of Art and Architecture, University of Pittsburgh "A genuinely wide ranging study of post-Wall Eastern and Western Europe, full of fresh juxtapositions and new insights. While centered on the former East Germany, Scribner's illuminating meditations on post-1989 art, literature, film, and museum practices elucidate both what is peculiar and what is paradigmatic about the GDR case."--Katie Trumpener, Professor of Comparative Literature & English, Yale University "Charity Scribner's *Requiem for Communism* is a beautifully written book. It is a meditation on transition, failed utopias, and the twentieth century, rendered from the comparative perspective of how literary texts and artistic works intervene to force disclosures on the ideological forces and political events that attended the dissolution of the socialist project in Western and Eastern Europe. What makes this book especially startling and invigorating is the subtlety of Scribner's reading and the lucidity of her writing; no words are wasted, and every observation is sharpened by the force of her analysis. This book should be read avidly -- not as an epitaph for the 'second world' but as a timely contribution to the study of the role artists and writers play in bringing home transitions' multiple messages in this moment of uncertainty and doubt."--Okwui Enwezor, Artistic Director, Documenta11, Kassel, Germany, and Visiting Professor of the History of Art and Architecture, University of Pittsburgh "A brilliant book -- delicate comparative observation marks this study of how social transition undergoes diverse cultural interpretation. While 'requiem' literally means a mass for the dead, Charity Scribner associates it with sorrow for abused and broken ideals. She successfully balances sober judgment on communism's downfall with compassion, leaving room for inconsistent feelings within our collective memory. Her intercultural approach detects distinctions that any dogmatic one-sidedness would ignore: nostalgic, mournful justifications on the one hand, and rude dismissal on the other. Finally, it is an honest book. Only a serious confrontation with grief can make separations of this kind humanly bearable, where ideals are trampled upon and broken by reality."--Oskar Negt, coauthor of *Public Sphere and Experience*Please note: Endorser gives permission to excerpt from quote.
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