LITERAL 21

In this issue:

Current Events

Essays

Reviews

Film

Reflection

LITERAL 21
Trans-border
/ Trans-fronterizos

It would seem that the logic of our time compels us to coexist with a series of debacles from which no one can escape. The needle on this roulette no longer points toward the U.S., but the European Economic Community, which has recently found itself obliged to award Greece a rescue package for the unprecedented sum of 110 billion Euros. Expert predictions share concern that the crisis will spread to Portugal and Spain, two countries with severely compromised economies. But is this really about a new logic of global interdependence, or are we merely victims of certain “errors”? According to the analysis that Tony Judt provides in this edition of Literal, the economic projects that have governed us over the past three decades offer no way out… unless, once again, we take into consideration what role governments ought to perform within an unregulated market.

This issue is accompanied by a series of essays regarding the instability of today’s coexistence, which is under particular duress no matter where we look due to all kinds of transterritorial phenomena: from manifestations of identity to cultures and politics, or gender and linguistics. Likewise, we offer a sample of works and a conversation with Damien Hirst, one of the most polemic fi gures on the artistic stage of our time.