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Welcome
to the Fall edition of World Policy
Journal, my tenth as Editor !
For the first time in its quarter
century of publication, World Policy Journal features music, painting,
poetry, Internet art, Nigerian film and Peruvian theater…the entire gamut of
human creativity to explore the emerging Global Canon. Acclaimed film director
Steven Soderbergh discusses the future of cinema, Eric Hoyt examines the world
through the lens of reality television, and the most interesting artists from
all corners of the globe showcase and discuss their work. Horace Engdahl, a
Swedish literary historian and critic who sits on and for many years chaired
the Nobel Prize for Literature selection committee, writes that “every nation
seems to have its own idea of world literature,” and examines how this affects
the Nobel selection process. Joel Whitney, poet and founding editor of Guernica,
scrutinizes the waning influence of the Western Canon, while a range of
experts, artists and academics debate the very existence of a global standard
of creativity.
Beyond the Canon, the Journal
presents the winners of its first ever essay contest, conducted in partnership
with Africa Rural Connect and the National Peace Corps Association, addressing
food security in Africa. Thomas Lee, a photojournalist, embeds with Ghana’s
illegal gold miners and returns with a remarkable portfolio; Jonathan Ewing
probes the war for Ethiopia’s oil. Finally, Editor David A. Andelman addresses
censorship’s threat to democracy in his regular Coda column. You can also follow him on Twitter @DavidAndelman !
The headlines below each link to the story at our World Policy Journal website:
Emerging Artists and their Art
Showcasing the vast scope of the Global Canon, the editors of the World
Policy Journal selected artists, composers, filmmakers and photographers to
look at how their work is shaped by the world, including Dominican photographer
Polibio Diaz, Israeli folk singer Asaf Avidan, Zambian-Italian filmmaker Franco
Sacchi, Dutch Internet artist Rafael Rosendaal, Peruvian playwright Gonzalo
Rodriguez Risco and Mayra Barraza, a visual artist from El Salvador.
Conversation: Steven Soderbergh
Director Steven Soderbergh (“Che”
the “Ocean’s 11” franchise) discusses the future of the film industry and the
growing importance of non-Western/Hollywood films in worldwide cinema. “It’s
hard for me to talk about where cinema is going to be in 25 years,” Soderbergh
says, “because I’m not convinced that it’s going to be relevant.”
A Nobel Sensibility
Swedish literary historian, critic
and longtime chairman of the body that selects the Nobel Prize for Literature, Horace
Engdahl traces the history of the prize and the development of literary
“canons.” These systems of literature, he concludes, are far from unified and,
in fact, are highly localized. “World literature,” he writes, “shifts from a
descriptive term to something of a performative phrase.”
Joel Whitney, founding editor of Guernica:
A Magazine of Art and Politics, challenges the idea of a Western Canon
centered on writers who are applauded, he argues, not just for their greatness,
but for the availability of their works in English. However, Whitney predicts
that as Western influence wanes, the Canon will evolve to keep up with the
linguistic and cultural diversity of the world's great creative thinkers.
Keeping It Real: Watching the World
Watch TV Is reality television nothing more
than a vast cultural wasteland? Film expert Eric Hoyt doesn’t think so. He
shows how reality TV is a truly global culture, why millions and millions of
viewers who love watching their countrymen fall in slow motion and, perhaps
more importantly, why Ukraine takes reality television so seriously.
Additionally:
--Professors
Dr. David Palumbo-Liu and Dr. Paulo Lemos Horta discuss teaching the Canon to
increasingly global students.
--In
Anatomy of a Music Video, director Phillip Andelman guides us through the
complex creation of a 3 minute film.
--MapRoom
transports us to the shelves of the world’s largest libraries, which
collectively hold at least 1.5 billion items in digital and print formats.
PORTFOLIO: Deadly Gold
Once known as Africa’s Gold Coast,
Ghana remains a key producer of this precious ore. Thomas Lee’s photographic exposé takes a searing look at Ghana’s illegal
mining industry.
Contest: Food Security in Africa The World Policy Journal, in
partnership with Africa Rural Connect, a program of the National Peace Corps
Association, conducted the first essay contest in the 27-year history of our
magazine, asking followers to submit their ideas for solving food security in
Africa. The contest winners include former Peace Corps volunteer J.T. Simms,
who argues for the use of highly nutritious foods such as moringa and
PlumpyNut, and former Peace Corps volunteer Michael Norton, who examines the
benefits of microinsurance.
REPORTAGE: An Ugly Exploration
Oil exploration in south Ethiopia has brought many
multinationals to this contested land.
Jonathan Ewing probes the precarious, at
times deadly, standoff between the government of Ethiopia, the separatist rebels
and the petroleum industry as he uncovers a raft of government-sanctioned human
rights violations, with the oil companies complicit in the
atrocities.
Since declaring independence from
Serbia on February 17, 2008, Kosovo has struggled to gain international
recognition as a sovereign state. But this is the least of its worries. David
L. Phillips, Director of the Program on Peacebuilding and Rights at Columbia
University and former senior advisor to the U.S. State Department on Southeast
Europe, takes a hard look at the culture of corruption and criminality that
plagues Kosovo’s young government.
The Roots of Hate
Hungary, long a beacon of social and economic hope in the
post-communist eastern bloc, has become a hotbed for right-wing extremism.
Michael J. Jordan reports on the socio-economic factors that are turning an
alarming number of Hungarians to Jobbik, the most dynamic new far right party
in all of Europe.
CODA: Censorship: Might vs. Right What role
does a free press play in democratic society? Moreover, what can we learn about
a country whose government practices censorship? In his regular column, Editor
David A. Andelman writes about how a free and unfettered Fourth Estate is
crucial to a healthy democratic future.
About World
Policy Journal
Since 1983, World Policy Journal has brought some of the most critical issues of our time to the
attention of a global audience. Its pages are known for lively, intelligent
writing that challenges conventional wisdom on global affairs. The non-partisan
Congressional Research Service has cited the Journal as the best erading for Congress on America’s global role.
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