Student Projects and the Anglophone Literary Field in Berlin

Outputs from a recently completed student project seminar on the Anglophone literary field in Berlin are published on The Literary Field Kaleidoscope. A zine, a podcast, an ethnographic diary, and an academic poster explore questions of subtle (or less subtle) forms of exclusion in the lively English-speaking Berlin book world. […] Read more

How kindness can transform a life – A review of Gail Honeyman’s novel “Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine”

Isabella Kremer reviews Gail Honeyman’s debut novel Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine (HarperCollins, 2017) for Literary Field Kaleidoscope. The novel won the Costa Debut Novel Award and three accolades at the British Book Awards (2018): Debut of the Year, Overall Winner and Marketing Campaign of the Year (it was indeed […] Read more

Review: “The Lesser Bohemians” by Eimear McBride – Things that do not belong together

Second novels are often a difficult transitional achievement. Our reviewer Taylor Hebert was disappointed by Eimar McBride’s The Lesser Bohemians. During a pandemic, it reminds us of the cultural world as it used to be but whether nostalgia coupled with laboured stylishness will help us through these times is questionable. Read more

Students’ Corner: Review of “Never Let Me Go” by Kazuo Ishiguro

Today, Chiara Harrison Lambe, a student at the Centre for British Studies in Berlin, shares her review of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Never Let Me Go (Faber, 2005) and claims that it hasn’t lost any of its emotional force over the years. Never Let Me Go opens with its narrator, Kathy […] Read more

Storytelling and Political Activism: “Refugee Tales” and its Call to End Indefinite Immigration Detention in the UK

Our guest author Jana Wiggenhauser writes about the Refugee Tales project, questions of representation and agency, the power of storytelling, and what might happen if people actually listen and take action.  “Maybe the real story begins here in this office, before you press record and we look in the mirror […] Read more