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The Capital (2017)

de Robert Menasse

Altres autors: Mira la secció altres autors.

Sèrie: EU-Reihe (1)

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Set on capturing the elusive inner workings of the European Union, Robert Menasse, one of Austria's most creative thinkers, moved to the EU's headquarters in Brussels for an enthralling, wine-soaked tour of supranational institutions. The resulting novel has become an international sensation, translated from German into more than twenty languages and deemed "the first great EU novel" (Politico). At the heart of a cast as diverse as the union itself is Fenia Xenapoulou, a Greek Cypriot recently "promoted" to the Department of Culture, who hopes to revamp the European Commission's image by proclaiming Auschwitz as its birthplace with the "Big Jubilee Project." Other tragic heroes, clever schemers, and involuntary accomplices are intricately woven, revealing the absurdities--and real dangers--of a fiercely nationalistic "union." Mordantly funny and piercingly urgent, The Capital, the winner of Germany's highest fiction prize, is an "elegantly written, beautifully constructed" (Die Zeit) feat of world literature.… (més)
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You don’t get very far into Robert Menasse’s “The Capital” before pigs start to appear.

A pig is seen rattling around in downtown Bruxelles, the European capital. A wealthy Austrian pig farmer pressures his brother, a bureaucrat in the EU hierarchy, to lobby for new subsidies for pig farmers. A senior trade bureaucrat is fending off pressure from pig farmers to eliminate agricultural subsidies to buoy European pig prices.

A man is murdered at the Hotel Atlas and all trace of evidence is “disappeared” by authorities. A concentration camp survivor is on the loose. A professor of economics is tapped to advise on Europe’s future. A bureaucrat is tapped to advise on the best means to celebrate the EU’s Jubilee year, but the idea is snuffed out by vigilant cronies.

Then there are the metaphorical pigs: the bureaucrats eating at the trough of a fat European government. The police units ever present on the streets of Bruxelles. The capitalist pigs at the trough of subsidies. And not the least of it: the PIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain) the source of Europe’s financial crisis.

Menasse sees little hope for the confederation as long as territorial imperatives cloud the benefits of unity. For one thing, what good is an organization founded on collective guilt, especially when the last of the survivors disappear?

The “Never again!” mantra of the continentalists rings hollow when every sign is on the horizon of a repetition of the dire events of the 1930’s and 1940’s. Nationalism, the old pig on the block, is back.

At every turn the reader (intended to be a European?) is asked to question what it means to be a European. It doesn’t say “European” on their passport. Having sex isn’t a peculiarly European pleasure any more than drinking wine, or beer, or attending a football match. Nor birth. Not death. Not religious affiliation. Nor surveillance.

“Why bother?” Menasse seems to be asking along with a significant number of minority of voices in the UK. What value is a confederation whose sole raison d’être is economic growth when growth is never going to keep up with demand and growth means despoiling the planet?

Well, for one thing if the government in Bruxelles is corrupt so too are the national governments. Moreover, the national governments duplicate other services that automation has clearly shown can be done by a machine. In truth, Europeans are paying too much for government. And their governments are too slow. So are ours on the other side of the Atlantic.

For another thing, the trading players in this universe are China, Japan, and the United States. Going nationalist is suicidal in traditional trade talks.

What is the metaphorical “capital” of the European experiment in continental government? At the moment it’s in the trash can Along with Karl Marx’ “das Kapital” and Thomas Piketty’s “Capital.” There is no room for logic, rationalism, or compassion in this capital.

If anything this planet needs less governance and more cooperation. Yes, I’m speaking of the impending environmental disaster of global warming. The many millions more of environmental refugees on the horizon.

Just to test my thesis I asked my Canadian wife: “If you could have smaller government, lower taxes, and greater access to international trade, would you agree to annex Canada to the United States?”

Her answer: “No way! Over my dead body!” The defence rests, your Honour.

Of that and much more our governments and our voters are petrified. They are all worried about it in France as they are in Ohio or Pennsylvania or the suburbs of Toronto. They too are the “pigs” that frighten us in the night.

The biggest pig in the room? Why, of course, it is us. And if you don’t remember why I urge you to go back and read George Orwell’s “Animal Farm.” ( )
  MylesKesten | Jan 23, 2024 |
Die von den anderen Abteilungen selten für voll genommene Kulturdirektion der Europäischen Kommission wird beauftragt, ein Projekt zur Imagesteigerung der Kommission zu planen. Man verfällt auf die Idee, mit dem "Big Jubilee Project" den Bogen von der Befreiung des Konzentrationslagers Ausschwitz ins Jetzt zu spannen und die Kommission sohin als Gewähr für den europäischen Grundkonsens "Nie wieder Krieg, nie wieder Ausschwitz" zu präsentieren. Doch das Projekt gerät in die Mühlen der Brüsseler EU-Bürokratie. Parallel dazu wird von Geheimdienstkreisen versucht, einen Mord zu vertuschen.

Robert Menasse hat einen Roman über die europäische Hauptstadt Brüssel und die Europäische Union geschaffen. Er zeigt auf, dass Anspruch und Wirkung beziehungsweise Außenwahrnehmung oftmals auseinanderklaffen. Bürokratie, nationale Interessen, Lobbying und politische Intrigen der EU und Ihres Beamtenapparates werden meisterhaft dargestellt und gibt der Roman Einblick in die europäische Geschichte und die Willensbildung der EU.

Fraglich bleibt aber, weshalb Menasse sich nicht darauf beschränkt, sondern zudem noch ein Mordkomplott und zahlreiche Absurditäten in den ohnedies prall gefüllten Plot zu packen versucht. Das Buch ist ein Pageturner, dass sich letztlich aber in Verästelungen verirrt. Dies mag als Symbol für die Brüsseler Bürokratie durchaus passend erscheinen, im Hinblick auf die angerissene Kriminalhandlung und weitere Erzählfragmente enttäuscht aber das abrupte (zumindest im Hinblick auf Nebenstränge der Handlung schlusslose) Finale. ( )
  schmechi | Jul 10, 2023 |
Robert Menasse’s Die Hauptstadt, winner of the 2017 German Book Prize, has recently being published by MacLehose Press in an English translation by Jamie Bulloch. In this incarnation, the novel’s title is rendered as The Capital. This name, of course, a faithful and literal translation from the German, but I wonder whether it was also meant as a tongue-in-cheek reference to Karl Marx’s epic tome. Indeed, political and economic theories also loom large in Menasse’s Capital, except that they are presented within the context of a zany novel about the workings of the European Commission.

Die Hauptstadt has been described as the first great novel about the European Union. It could well be the case. I don’t profess to be some expert in Continental literature, of course, but the only other novel I know which uses the European Commission as a backdrop is “What happens in Brussels stays in Brussels” by the Maltese author Ġuże’ Stagno. And that’s more a satire on Maltese politics and the Maltese representatives in the EU, than a novel on the European institutions themselves.

Menasse’s work takes a wider view. Its central plot element is a “Big Jubilee Project” which is being organised by the Commission as a celebration of the anniversary of its founding. Ambitious EU official Fenia Xenapoulou hopes that this will be an occasion to improve the image of the Commission, whilst providing her with her big break. Fenia’s Austrian assistant Martin Susman comes up with the noble idea of roping in Holocaust survivors, as a reminder that the European Union was built to ensure that Auschwitz would “never happen again”. Unsurprisingly, as the organizers will discover to their chagrin, national interests and behind-the-scenes lobbying make the success of such an ambitious celebration unlikely.

Much as I enjoyed this novel, I must say that it took me some time to finally get immersed in it. This is certainly not the fault of the translation – I’ve previously enjoyed Bulloch’s translations of The Mussel-Feast and Look Who’s Back, and as in those novels, The Capital is rendered in prose that is idiomatic and flowing. I believe the problem is more with its sheer number of characters (a recent theatrical adaptation involved 7 actors playing about 20 roles) – in the initial chapters especially, I thought that an introductory dramatis personae would have been helpful as a guide to the somewhat bewildering international cast.

Another issue is with the proliferation of seemingly unrelated subplots involving, amongst other narrative complications: a pig on the loose in Brussels; a retired Professor preparing to deliver a final, memorable speech; a Holocaust survivor coming to terms with his impending death; a number of potential, never-fully-realised love stories and, more weirdly, a crime investigation which seems to have been borrowed from a Dan Brown thriller. More frustratingly, some of these loose ends are never tied up.

In other words, The Capital is a sprawling novel which could have done with some tightening. However, its polyphonic narrative is, in itself, a good metaphor for the European Union, this patchwork of nations and cultures which, somehow, managed to build a future of hope from the cinders of a continent ravaged by war. Indeed, this novel, despite its several comic and surreal elements, provides Menasse with the springboard to present his views on the European Union. Despite the evident shortcomings, the bureaucracy and the backstabbing which seem to characterize the working of its institutions, especially the Commission, the central idea(l) of the EC remains a laudable one – the creation of a supra-national body to keep extreme nationalism in check, in order to ensure that the horrors of the 20th Century do no happen again. In the age of Brexit and strident populism, its themes urgently relevant.

Full review at: http://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/2019/03/the-capital-by-robert-menasse.html ( )
  JosephCamilleri | Feb 21, 2023 |
When this came out, it was hailed as the first big, literary novel to focus on the inner workings of the EU bureaucracy. Given how many clever, imaginative people there must be sitting around in Brussels offices (or recently retired from them), it seems surprising that there aren't many more such novels: one is almost forced to conclude that the work they do there is so engaging that they don't have any energy left over to satirise it...

Be that as it may, as well as a core group of officials mostly working in the communication department of "DG Culture" of the European Commission, Menasse's cast includes an elderly Auschwitz survivor, an Austrian pig-farmer, an emeritus economics professor, a Brussels police inspector, a professional assassin employed by the Archdiocese of Poznań, and a possibly-imaginary, possibly-symbolic pig wandering through the streets of Brussels. The conventions of narrative tell us that the stories of all these people are going to fit together sooner or later, but Menasse enjoys teasing us by allowing their paths to cross repeatedly without anything happening. It's not for nothing that Kafka's name is dropped repeatedly: Menasse is clearly a fan of the absurd, and we look for logical connections at our peril.

Naturally, this isn't just a book about the peculiarities of living in Brussels, with its constant rain, building sites, demonstrations no-one pays any attention to, inexplicable police blockades, and baffling bilingualism, nor is it merely a detailed study of the sophisticated methods international bureaucracies can deploy to resist dangerous new ideas, although it does both of those things very elegantly. What Menasse really seems to be doing here is arguing that we have lost track of the great European Idea of the 1940s, the notion that if we want a world in which we can say "never again" to Auschwitz we have to get rid of racism and nationalism and move on to a post-national democracy. The institutions of the EU are arranged in such a way that it is almost impossible for anyone to take a decision that goes against the self-interest of any of the member states, and it often seems as though the only truly radical things the EU has ever done have been those needed to serve the prevailing ideology of liberal capitalism and the free market. Obviously there are holes to pick in this: the founders of the predecessor organisations of the EU were arguably more interested in industrial competition with the US than in preserving the postwar peace, and no-one ever seems to have come up with a workable way to create truly democratic European institutions. But I'm sure that Menasse is right in identifying the legacy of Auschwitz as the thing that is at the core of the way large numbers of Europeans — especially of the immediate post-war generations — have looked at the European Idea, and the reason why so many of us view the rise in populist nationalism in the last decades with such horror. But he's clearly also right about the difficulty of communicating that idea to people who've come to see "Europe" negatively.

An interesting and very clever book, in which I recognised a lot of types and professional manoeuvres I'm very familiar with(!), but also a rather sad and frustrating one. He ends with "à suivre", but it's not at all obvious at present where the story should go next, either in fiction or in real life. ( )
  thorold | Nov 7, 2022 |
Ez a könyv a 2017-es Német Könyvdíj nyertese, ami igen jó cégér, kevés jobbat lehet elképzelni. Talán nem független ez attól, hogy ez (ha jól tudom) az első magas minőségben megírt szépirodalmi mű, ami Brüsszelről szól – mégpedig nem a fizikai értelemben vett városról, hanem arról az absztrakt fővárosról, ami az Európai Unió idegrendszerének gócpontja. Ilyen értelemben Menasse vállalása gigászi, hisz ezt az absztrakt fővárost akarja leképezni úgy, hogy sokszínű főszereplőinek életszilánkjait egymás mellé helyezi. Látunk bürokratát, tudóst, bérgyilkost, rendőrt, holokauszt-túlélőt, de még egy igazi disznót is, szembesülünk problémáikkal (a disznóéval nem annyira – egy mínuszpont a zöldektől), és rajtuk keresztül a Nagy Európai Problémával is – azzal, miképpen vész el az európai együttműködés magasztos eszménye a kisstílű nemzeti akaratok és hivatali csatározások közepette. Mert az unió gondolata nagyszerű idea – azon a felismerésen alapul, hogy a nacionalizmus túlpörgése tragikus következményekkel járhat, amit csak a nemzeti célokon való bizonyos szintű felülemelkedéssel lehet megelőzni. De ezt a célt újra és újra maga alá temeti a tény, hogy a Brüsszelbe delegált nemzeti képviselők csak a saját pecsenyéjüket sütögetnék, tesznek magasról a szép eszmékre meg a hosszú távú kilátásokra, és a saját maguk által szított szuverenitásigényre mint végső okra hivatkozva egyre-másra torpedózzák meg a bizottságok reformjait. Aztán persze a reformok kudarcát (amit ők maguk idéztek elő) annak bizonyítékaként tálalják, hogy az EU döntésképtelen, tehát ők annál több joggal vágyakozhatnak vissza a nemzetállamok aranykorába. Aztán persze mi lesz, ha visszatér a szétforgácsolt európai nemzetek kora? Ott lesz egy csomó állam, aki valamelyik másik állammal szemben fogja meghatározni magát, mert az egyszerűbb, mint pozitív módon meghatározni saját magunkat*. Ott lesz egy Lengyelország, akinek a legfontosabb tulajdonsága az lesz, hogy nem német és nem orosz és nem ukrán. Meg ott lesz egy Németország, akit onnan ismerni meg, hogy nem szláv és nem francia. És ott lesz egy Magyarország – aki aztán tényleg nem nagyon csipáz senkit, és hát őt se csipázzák a szomszédságból túl sokan. És ha nem lesz felettük egy legalább minimális kontrollt biztosító EU – az lesz ám a nemulass! A nemulass után meg a macskajajos ébredés következik, amikor jönnek a konszenzuskeresők, és mint szokták, eltakarítják a trágyát a nacionalisták után. Lehet, hogy pont ezt hívják történelemnek.

Ahogy mondtam, talán a témája miatt lett ez a tavalyi év német könyve. Mert veszettül aktuális, hogy ez a téma megjelenjen az irodalomban. Ami azt illeti, a megvalósításban akadnak hibák – elemeiben enyhén brossúraízű**, és a regény különböző síkjai érzésem szerint nincsenek kiegyensúlyozva, némelyik jóval kidolgozottabbnak, erőteljesebbnek tűnik, mint a másik. A vég lekerekítetlensége szándékos, de akad majd, akikben hiányérzetet hagy. Ugyanakkor ezek a hibák nem megbocsáthatatlanok, és elfedi őket a tény, hogy Menasse egyáltalán bemerészkedett ebbe a világba, amiről oly keveset tudunk***, és még sikerült is kihoznia onnan valami csillogót. Magam nem különösebben szeretem, ha egy szöveg ennyire direkt politikai üzenettel bír, és bevallom, itt is enyhén zavart ez a zönge. Még akkor is, ha különben Menasse szemlélete maximális egyetértésre talált bennem. De azért ajánlom olvasásra – mert ha hisszük, ha nem, amiről a könyv szól, az velünk történik. És ami velünk történik, arról jobb, ha tudunk.

* Érdekes, hogy amíg megannyi másik népre van frappáns, rövid állandó jelzőnk, ami mintegy pár fonémában összefoglal mindent, amit az adott népcsoportról tudni érdemes (mégpedig zömmel pejoratív: szőröstalpú, csigazabáló, stb.), addig ilyet saját magunkra nem tudtunk kitalálni. Mert nem is lehet kitalálni: egy népet sosem lehet röviden összefoglalni. Mondjuk ne aggódjunk, a szomszédainknak biztos sikerült.
** Ezt előnyként is említhetnők – nagyon informatívak ugyanis ezek a passzusok, rengeteget meg lehet tudni a brüsszeli eljárásrendről éppúgy, mint a hivatali packázások hogyanjairól.
*** Akad egyáltalán valaki, aki meg tudja különböztetni egymástól az Európa Tanácsot, a bizottságokat, valamint az Európai Parlamentet? Pedig elméletileg ugye ők momentán a főellenségeink. Persze nyilván azért tudjuk elhinni, hogy a főellenségeink, mert pont semmit se tudunk róluk. ( )
  Kuszma | Jul 2, 2022 |
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Nom de l'autorCàrrecTipus d'autorObra?Estat
Robert Menasseautor primaritotes les edicionscalculat
Bulloch, JamieTraductorautor secundarialgunes edicionsconfirmat
Noble, PeterNarradorautor secundarialgunes edicionsconfirmat

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Cap

Set on capturing the elusive inner workings of the European Union, Robert Menasse, one of Austria's most creative thinkers, moved to the EU's headquarters in Brussels for an enthralling, wine-soaked tour of supranational institutions. The resulting novel has become an international sensation, translated from German into more than twenty languages and deemed "the first great EU novel" (Politico). At the heart of a cast as diverse as the union itself is Fenia Xenapoulou, a Greek Cypriot recently "promoted" to the Department of Culture, who hopes to revamp the European Commission's image by proclaiming Auschwitz as its birthplace with the "Big Jubilee Project." Other tragic heroes, clever schemers, and involuntary accomplices are intricately woven, revealing the absurdities--and real dangers--of a fiercely nationalistic "union." Mordantly funny and piercingly urgent, The Capital, the winner of Germany's highest fiction prize, is an "elegantly written, beautifully constructed" (Die Zeit) feat of world literature.

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