Further reading and watching

Dear students,

First of all, Inès and I would like to thank you for your wonderful response in this literary adding to your class. Having read a great number of your book reports we can see we could have had very vibrant sessions. But Covid rules and no regrets. The important thing now is to tame this most disturbing pandemia and go back to normal as soon as possible. But having learn some lessons. Essentially that the response is essentially in ourselves. 

As summer comes by and attending the request of some of you, please find here below some recommendations for further reading and watching. A way to keep alive free thinking and developing our capacity of understanding the world we live in. Literature and good movies and series will considerably help those of us who are willing to keep on learning every day. We may not get all the answers but we will start at least asking ourselves the appropriate questions and this a great start.!!!

So no more talking and lets go....

a) Some great books

As we have seen European Union construction, these novels help considerably to understand its evolution:

TOPIC: Europe after World War I: the impossible alliance

The Great Swindle by Pierre Lemaître (McLehose Press, 2016). A gripping novel mixing thriller and history. France after WWI.

TOPIC: Cold war: the need for Western Europe to be allied:

A legacy of spies by John Le Carré (Penguin Classics, 2010). A more contemporary second part of The spy who came in from the cold. Reviewing Cold War in a very interesting way by a writer who is the master on spies.

TOPIC: Europe after the fall of Berlin Wall:

The dogs of Riga by Henning Mankell (Vintage, 2012). This novel by the best writer of Nordic Noir shows the contradictions and difficulties faced by countries from the Eastern Block in the transition period before joining the EU.

TOPIC: First signs of Brexit:

We have read this year Middle England by Jonathan Coe which explained the causes of Brexit from various perspectives. As complementary reading please do not miss Capital by John Lanchester,(Faber and Faber, 2013)  an outstanding achievement that gives us many more clues in a moment in which Brexit was already on process. 

The title refers to London, where the main action takes place and on the same time to the evolution of Capitalism. A great critique of Neoliberal policies started at the age of Thatcher and continued by Labour leader Tony Blair. If the UK is one of the countries in which Covid Pandemia is stricking more heavily it is in great part due to the collapse of the NHS (National Health service), simply because successive governments decided that maintaining it was too expensive. 

TOPIC: The aftermath of the fall of Berlin Wall:

The Nobel Prize Svetlana Alexiévitch is the author of journalism masterpieces. We would like to point out two: Secondhand time: The last of the Soviets and Chernobyl Prayer: Voices from Chernobyl: A Chronicle of the Future.

The first is an account of Soviet Union’s end through different testimonies. The second an impressive and terrifying report on Chernobyl and its consequences. Both books are essential.

TOPIC: Are we getting back to the 1930’s?:

The 1930 decade was a time when most of Western regimes tried to solve the aftermaths of the 1929 crisis by developing a totalitarian political regime and rejecting traditional parliamentarian democracy. Some historians have put an alarm by stating that we are coming back to the 30’s situation, because since 2008 crisis economic and social differences are growing wider. Populism from right and left are the political response everywhere. This following list of books will help you to understand what happened in the 1930’s and will help you to compare with our present situation.

Stalinism:

- Koba the Dread: Laughter and the Twenty Million by Martin Amis. It is not exactly a novel but a kind of autobiographical account by Martin Amis and a brilliant study of how British and European communist intellectuals did not want to face the terrible truth about Stalin. 

- The man who loved dogs by Leonardo Padura is the story of Trotski’s long exile. Stalin’s hatred for him heralded the deep crisis left parties will know, probably still unresolved. An addictive reading that you should not miss since Leonardo Padura is a Cuban writer, living in La Habana. His books are tolerated now but Fidel Castro forbid them for many years. La neblina del ayer, Pasado Perfecto, Herejes o La transparencia del tiempo will show you current Cuba better than any newspaper article with Mario Conde’s unbeatable company, the private detective created by Padura.

Mussolini:

- M by Maurizio Scurati. Only translated in Spanish, it is a very interesting and dazzling portrait of how Mussolini came to power in Italy in 1922. Italian social, economic and moral context is superbly portrayed by Scurati.

Franco and the Spanish Civil War:

- La noche de los tiempos by Antonio Muñoz Molina. The best novel on Spanish Civil War ever written with the adequate distance and objectivity. Outstanding!!! There is English Translation: In the Night of Time (Serpent’s Tail, 2016).

Populisms today:

- Illska by Icelandic writher Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl. No translation in English but in French and Spanish. Same title for both editions, published by Hoja de Lata in Spanish and by Pocket Book in French.

b) Some great movies or TV series:

Culture is not only literature, it is also cinema and art (paintings, photography, theatre,…). As going to museums, exhibitions and theatre is a bit complicated and will remain so for a while, we have selected some films and TV series for you to watch complementing the above mentioned readings. They are all available on dvd (Amazon still works, though a little slower) and on streaming. The audiovisual offer is overwhelming this days but as you may have realized there is a lot of crap. The following list takes care of movies and series of an outstanding level. We strongly recommend them. Do not miss them.  

TOPIC: On the aftermath of the fall of Berlin Wall:

 two great movies and an outstanding TV serie: 

- “The life of others” (2007) directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck.

- “Goodbye Lenin” (2003) directed by Wolfgang Becker.

Both films are located in Eastern Germany, the first is a drama focused on the difficult conditions of freedom of expression and intellectual work under a strict Communist regime whereas the second is a joyous and gleaming comedy on a boy’s deception to his mother, a fervent Communist, who after a coma awakes in a unified Germany.

- “Chernobyl” (2019), based on the book by Svetlana Alexiévitch is simply magnificent. Brilliantly performed, it superbly narrates the chain of errors, incompetence and burocratic paralysis that converged in the explosion of the nuclear reactor. Its brutal radiations are still present. Gorbachov said that Chernobyl explosion was the beginning of the end of Soviet Union.

TOPIC: Populisms and the manipulation of public opinion by the government: 

One of the problems of Populisms is that they have not other program than giving to the people an easy answer for their fears and anxieties. They say what people want to hear. This is why they do really well in moments of crisis. For understanding this manipulation and how in every period fortunately there are honest people willing to defend truth and freedom we recommend two great movies. 

- “Sophie Scholl” (2005) directed by Marc Rothemund. A movie about the last days of this German anti-nazi activist that was executed by the Nazi regime at the age of 21 for distributing anti-nazi propaganda. She belonged to the White rose movement. Lets remember that not all Germans supported Hitler. Going against the main current of public opinion is dangerous and in this case lethal. Would you take the risk of going against Populist tide? After watching the Movie ask yourselves if you would have the courage to do so. Are honesty, freedom and liberty really important to you? 

- Finally, do not miss "The Officer and the Spy" (2020) directed by Roman Polanski, based on the wonderful book by Robert Harris An officer and a spy. The Dreyfuss affair narrated in a vibrant movie that appeals to our contemporary sensitivity. The defeat of France in the 1870 War against Bismarck Prussia left a feeling of bitterness and humiliation. This is why the establishment after discovering that some French officer was passing sensitive military secrets to the Prussian authorities in Paris tried to put the blame on a Jewish officer: Alfred Dreyfuss. He was the perfect scapegoat in a time when massive public opinion defended very strong anti-Semitism. 

What is great is that it was an officer of the establishment Georges Picquart, who did not like Jewish people but was decent and honest, who discovered that the accusation was false. But the establishment did not want to let the truth go public because Dreyfuss was the perfect offender for keeping public order. What it is interesting is that the protagonist of Harris book and of Polanski movie is not Dreyfuss but the brave officer that put his conscience before his career. A great example. An unforgettable movie.