BCB Faculty Member Marion Detjen publishes an article in Zeit-Online, “Die Arbeit an den Gurken” (Work on Cucumbers).
BCB Faculty Member Marion Detjen has recently published an article in Zeit-Online, titled “Die Arbeit an den Gurken” (Work on Cucumbers). Detjen explores the ways in which Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” can be read in times of Russia's war in Ukraine. The article explains the importance of decoupling Ukrainian and Russian cultures and respecting the invaded peoples’ unwillingness to enjoy hegemonic cultures. Detjen also notes the imperial biases in Russian and German literature and calls for reading post-colonial works like Tolstoy’s Haji Murat, which can contribute to alleviating ethnic tensions, rather than deepening them.