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121. A Mongrel Canon

Author:
Joel Whitney
Publication Date:
09-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
World Policy Journal
Institution:
World Policy Institute
Abstract:
In 1994, the critic Harold Bloom mounted a vigorous public defense of the western literary canon, which was then under siege. In his volume, “The Western Canon,” Bloom lauded the tradition of great western books, portraying himself as a singular reader in a one on one reverie with each of twenty-six canonical authors. No aspect beyond aesthetics, or influence, should count. Or so he argued from one side of his mouth.

122. The Emerging Canon: Artists and Their Art

Publication Date:
09-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
World Policy Journal
Institution:
World Policy Institute
Abstract:
For centuries, the Western Canon referred to a body of literature or paintings that formed the foundations for all those who've followed. At the beginning, such works were copied, painstakingly, by hand. Later, texts were set laboriously by typesetters, sheets pulled manually page by page from enormous hand presses. Artists painted by oil on canvases stretched across boards. We've come a long way since the first printed books or still lifes—the means of transmission have changed, and so has the very nature of creativity.

123. The Photographer

Author:
Polibio Diaz
Publication Date:
09-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
World Policy Journal
Institution:
World Policy Institute
Abstract:
You, the viewer, the unhurried passerby, see an open door. Inside, flora, fauna, and gimcracks jump out, a crowded and colorful interior. It arouses the neighbor's envy, and if all that isn't enough its inhabitants call attention to themselves even more, by playing the stereo as loud as possible (Bachata or Reggaeton), so it's impossible for them to go unnoticed. It's no coincidence we've been declared the second happiest country in the world, though we don't have a nickel to our names.
Political Geography:
United States

124. The Musician

Author:
Asaf Avidan
Publication Date:
09-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
World Policy Journal
Institution:
World Policy Institute
Abstract:
I was born in a nation of immigrants. Over the 62 years of its existence, Israel has become a melting pot of social and cultural exchange. Poles, Germans, Yemenites, Moroccans, Egyptians, Russians and more— all foreigners that have unintentionally contributed their traditions to the biological and cultural composition of Israel.
Topic:
Immigration
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, Europe, Israel, and Egypt

125. The Filmmaker

Author:
Franco Sacchi
Publication Date:
09-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
World Policy Journal
Institution:
World Policy Institute
Abstract:
The 18 year-old, $250 million Nigerian film industry produces some 2,000 movies a year—a number that puts Lagos in a league with Mumbai and Los Angeles. But in Nollywood, unlike Bollywood or Hollywood, movies can cost as little as $10,000 to make and take barely a week to shoot. The films are straight-to-VCR, VCD or DVD and cost around $1.60 a piece, though they can be rented for a fifth of that price and are also shown on satellite television. While their quality of acting and production may appear lacking when compared to the products of other film industries, Nollywood movies are avidly consumed throughout Nigeria, across Africa and beyond.
Political Geography:
Africa, Nigeria, and Mumbai

126. The Internet Artist

Author:
Rafael Rozendaal
Publication Date:
09-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
World Policy Journal
Institution:
World Policy Institute
Abstract:
This new movie industry has created a range of possibilities for a new generation of Africans. As the star actor Saint Obi said in my documentary, “This is Nollywood,” “Early in my career I discovered that through acting I could be successful in life without committing any crime or having to compromise my values. It was just me, and my God-given talent.” All of the sudden, there are real opportunities for young Africans to pursue a viable career in one the most difficult and competitive sectors of any society—the creative industry.
Political Geography:
United States

127. The Playwright

Author:
Gonzalo Rodriguez Risco
Publication Date:
09-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
World Policy Journal
Institution:
World Policy Institute
Abstract:
As a writer, is dealing with universal subjects rather than local or fleeting subjects a better way to reach a global audience? Or does something that appears local, deeply grounded in a particular culture, translate to a broader audience just by the act of telling it? My personal approach comes as a Spanish-speaking playwright who decided to write in English. I had to discover my way into this “foreign” language, and that way has become my particular voice as a writer in English. It's neither English as written by a natural English speaker nor a translation by a Spanish speaker. It lives somewhere in the middle.

128. Visual Artist

Author:
Mayra Barraza
Publication Date:
09-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
World Policy Journal
Institution:
World Policy Institute
Abstract:
I prefer other venues— rather than my own artwork—for activism; that is, for the type of activism that requires organized collective work to bring about substantial social change or awareness. I have always felt concerned and responsible for what goes on around me and have dived into projects dealing with public space, gender issues, and visual arts. This has boomeranged back and forth into my artwork in ways difficult to unravel, but evident I guess in pieces from the “Republic of Death” and “Justice, Mr. President” series.

129. A Nobel Sensibility

Author:
Horace Engdahl
Publication Date:
09-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
World Policy Journal
Institution:
World Policy Institute
Abstract:
Because of the attention that the literature prize attracts across the world and because of its prestige, the Nobel laureates have inevitably come to be seen as forming a kind of modern canon. This has provoked the critical reproach that many of the 20th century's greatest writers are missing from the list, and that it includes too few women and not enough non-Europeans. I believe that the Academy members who comprised that first Nobel Committee in 1901 would have been terrified had they realized what they were about to set in motion. Certainly in those first few years no one thought of the prize as a means to define a canon. (Nor was the concept of a canon applied to contemporary literature— that is a late development.) Alfred Nobel's will intends to reward a literary work published in the previous year—a single book, not a body of writing. Nobel clearly wanted the literature prize to act in the present, rather than crown masters for all time. As it turned out, the Swedish Academy gave the prize a distinctly monumental character. In doing so, it could appeal to the wording of the Nobel Foundation's statutes, the final document that directs the activity of the Nobel Prize committees. According to the statutes, older works may be awarded, “if their significance has not become apparent until recently.” This concession was used to motivate the practice of considering a lifetime's creativity rather than an individual work. The phrase “during the preceding year” was interpreted in a broader sense, as a demand for the continued viability of a work.
Political Geography:
Europe

130. Keeping it Real: Watching the World Watch TV

Author:
Eric Hoyt
Publication Date:
09-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
World Policy Journal
Institution:
World Policy Institute
Abstract:
Ewa Mularczyk remembers the electrifying first season of “Big Brother”—the show that entombs ten strangers for three months in a house wired with hidden cameras and microphones—in Poland. When a housemate on Polish “Big Brother” was broadcast bathing nude, the nation reacted with horror and fascination. “It was the first time we ever saw anything on TV like that,” Mularczyk says. At that moment she became, like millions of other viewers watching their own country's versions of the show across the world, a “Big Brother” addict. When it first premiered in the Netherlands, in 1999, the show generated many viewers and much controversy. Within three years its production company, Endemol, had licensed or produced the format in 42 countries. But Mularczyk went further than most “Big Brother” fans. She became a reality television producer, moving from Poland to Los Angeles in 2001. To date, she has worked on “Hell's Kitchen,” “Dr. 90210” and “I Survived a Japanese Game Show.”
Political Geography:
Netherlands