Students of Humanities

In this episode, Ksenia Kwiecińska (rMA Comparative Literary Studies at UU) and Toby Kommeren (rMA Arts, Media, and Literature  at LU) discuss Georgi Gospodinov’s Booker Prize-winning novel Time Shelter (2020). If, as Gospodinov proposes, writing can be a cure for nightmares, what nightmare is Time Shelter reenacting and what kind of cure does it offer? Written in the aftermath of Brexit, the narrative reconciles with political consequences of personal nostalgia by staging a not-so-distant fractured European future. By investigating the text’s engagement with restorative and reflective nostalgia, the dissolution of memory and narrative structure, and imaginaries of a European future, this episode posits Time Shelter as a narrative that mourns the potential loss of a united Europe. Kommeren and Kwiecińska discuss the novel’s engagement with how the past might hold us back from achieving a Europe that is truly shared. This episode also features a conversation with Bilyana Manolova, a PhD candidate at Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis, specialising in post-socialist life writing.   References Primary works Gospodinov, Georgi. Time Shelter: A Novel. Translated by Angela Rodel, Liveright, 2022. Secondary works Assman, Aleida. Is Time Out of Joint? On the Rise and Fall of the Modern Time Regime. Cornell University Press, 2020. Boym, Svetlana. The Future of Nostalgia, Basic Books, 2001. Dom Literatury, “Kwestionariusz literacki #3 Georgi Gospodinow. YouTube, 16 February 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7i8KKZMmLM. Accessed 25 Feb. 2026. Fisher, Mark. “Slow Cancellation of the Future.” MaMa Zagreb, 2014.  —. Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? Zero Books, 2009. Greenwell, Garth. “The Bulgarian Sadness of Georgi Gospodinov.” The New Yorker, 17 April, 2015, https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-bulgarian-sadness -of-georgi-gospodinov, Accessed, 25 February 2026. International Booker Prize, “Georgi Gospodinov Interview: ‘I felt something had gone awry in the clockworks of time.’” 18 April, 2023. https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/features/georgi-gospodinov- interview-time-shelter. Accessed, 25 Feb. 2026.  Additional audio:  Dimchev, Dimcho. “Dimcho Dimchev - Vazrazhdane | 1. Souveränitäts-Demo | Bern Bundesplatz - 27.4.2024.” YouTube, MASS-VOLL!, 24 May 2024, www.youtube.com/watch?v=gt7-JMagb5k.  Gospodinov, Georgi. “GEORGI GOSPODINOV - Time Shelter: The Exhilarating Poison of the Past.” YouTube, IWMVienna, 10 October 2023, www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuGjYm1MXbo.  Gospodinov, Georgi. “Literary Questionnaire #3 Georgi Gospodinov.” YouTube, Dom Literatury, 16 February 2022, www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7i8KKZMmLM.  Johnson, Boris. “Boris Johnson’s Speech after Britain Votes to Leave the EU.” YouTube, Shropshire Star, 24 June 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZHZty8u9gE.  Wilders, Geert. “Meer of Minder Marokanen [sic]? , Geert Wilders.” YouTube, Geert Wilders, 30 July 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsLp0ZCOHYU.  Featured guest: Bilyana Manolova is a PhD candidate at the Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis (ASCA). Her research project Becoming Post-Socialist: Life Writing and the Post-socialist Subject, supervised by Prof. dr. Esther Peeren, attends to post-1989 Eastern European cultural production as a negotiation of emerging post-socialist identity.  

In this episode, Franek Dziduch (rMA Cultural Analysis at UvA) and Ollie Köhn-Haskins (rMA Comparative Literary Studies at UU) discuss the strengths and shortcomings of satirizing European cultural elites. How does one effectively criticize Europe’s narratives of Otherness, identity, and class? To search for an answer, Dziduch and Köhn-Haskins delve into Sister Europe (2025) by Nell Zink, examining how stylistic devices centered on distance rather than identification, illustrate Europe’s failure to reckon with its fascist and colonial history. The episode also features postcolonial scholar Sandra Ponzanesi (UU), who reflects on what needs to happen to facilitate a dialogue that, rather than remaining a performative gesture, actively decolonizes Europe from its imperial legacies.  References Primary works Zink, Nell. Sister Europe. Random House, 2025. Secondary works Ahmed, Sara. Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others. Duke University Press, 2006. Cline, Jake. “In ‘Sister Europe,’ Witty Conversation Is Action Enough.” The Washington Post, 24 March 2025, www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/03/24/nell-zink-sister-europe-review/. Accessed 15 February 2026. Dowling, Sarah. Translingual Poetics: Writing Personhood Under Settler Colonialism. University of Iowa Press, 2018. Fisher, Mark. Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? Zero Books, 2009. Garner, Dwight. “One Exhilarating, Excruciating Night in Nell Zink’s Berlin.” New York Times, March 2025. Gilroy, Paul. “Foreword: Europe Otherwise.” Postcolonial Transitions in Europe, edited by Gianmaria Colpani and Sandra Ponzanesi, Rowman & Littlefield, 2015. Kaiser, Marie and Thomas Böhm. “Nell Zink: ‘Berlin in der amerikanischen Literatur ist einfach so eine Art erweitertes Berghain.’” Die Literaturagenten, radioeins rbb, n.d., www.radioeins.de/programm/sendungen/literaturagenten/_/nell-zink-ueber-ihren-neuen-roman--sister-europe-.html. Accessed 13 May. 2026.  Kornbluh, Anna. Immediacy, or the Style of Too Late Capitalism. Verso Books, 2024. Park-Ozee, Dakota. “Satire: An explication.” HUMOR, vol. 32, no. 4, 2019, pp. 585-604.  Peirson-Hagger, Ellen. “Sister Europe by Nell Zink Review – Ramshackle Wanderers in Berlin.” The Guardian, 20 April 2025, www.theguardian.com/books/2025/apr/20/sister-europe-by-nell-zink-review-ramshackle-wanderers-in-berlin. Accessed 15 February 2026. Ponzanesi, Sandra, and Gianmaria Colpani. Postcolonial Transitions in Europe. Rowman & Littlefield, 2015. Additional audio: Politics and Prose. “Nell Zink — Sister Europe.” YouTube, Politics and Prose, 21 April 2025, 44 min. 59 sec. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qno-5pUDJO4&t=2139s. Accessed 13 May 2026. Featured guest: Sandra Ponzanesi is Full Professor and Chair of Media, Gender and Postcolonial Studies at the Department of Media and Culture Studies, Utrecht University. Her expertise is gender and postcolonial critique from a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective. 

In this episode, Maura Martens and Sterre Schols, both students of the Research Master “Arts, Literature and Media” at Leiden University, delve into the marginalized stories of Europe through the lens of Critical Heritage Studies. Who is included and who is left out of Europe’s cultural narratives? Through a close-reading of the novel Soul Tourists (2005) by British author Bernardine Evaristo, Maura and Sterre explore the critical role of art in the cultural archive of Europe, especially in relation to issues of race, colonialism and mobility. Evaristo offers a multivoiced alternative narrative by presenting ghostly encounters with black figures from Europe’s past. This episode also discusses Thomas Price’s Moments Contained (2022), a statue of an imaginary, young Black woman in front of Rotterdam's Central Station. Dutch novelist Safae el Khannoussi joins the discussion to speak about her critically acclaimed debut novel Oroppa (2024).For references and additional information, please see the full description (available here as PDF)

This episode is hosted by Anna Loi and Ymke van Doorn, both students of the Research Master “Arts, Literature and Media” at Leiden University. The focus is on Jenny Erpenbeck’s Go, Went, Gone (2015), a novel about the encounters of Richard, a retired professor, with a group of refugees in Berlin (Germany). How do literary narratives, such as these, shape our perceptions of migration and of refugees? Can literature evoke empathy and is there a limit to this? Through an analysis of the novel, Anna and Ymke reveal a tension between humanitarian ideals and systemic constraints. In their discussion, they also discuss Ai Weiwei's The Law of the Journey (2017) and Banksy's Inflatable Refugee Boat (2024) and interview Dr Sanne Rotmeijer (Leiden University) about the relationship between empathy and storytelling. For references and additional information, please see the full description (available here as PDF)

Sveltana Alexievich's ' 'The Unwomanly Face of War' documents the experiences of Soviet women who participated in the second world war – both at the front lines and at home. This episode by Milou Makaske, Betty Kincová and Annemijn de Vries considers the book and its themes. 

In this podcast episode, Sorcha Lanigan and Sophie Carr-Brulard discuss Saidia Hartman's book 'Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments' which is an exploration of the intimate lives of young Black women in Philadelphia and New York in early 20th century.  

Njabuko S. Ndebele's 'The Cry of Winnie Mandela', discussed here by Meri Kajaia and Nina Hamann, is fictional narrative centred around the stories of several women, including Winnie Mandela. The novel is a meditation on what it is to be a woman in the struggle – on waiting, longing, catharsis, and redemption. 

In this episode, Joël Kous and Jeroen Kreis review Maaza Mengiste's 'The Shadow King'. The novel is situated in the Second Italian-Ethiopian War, 1935-37 and highlights the role of women in this war. 

Jung Chang’s 'Wild Swans' is a family history of three generation of women spread over a hundred years. The book, discussed here by Lin Monen and Hosoo Kim, examines the lives and struggles of Chinese women under different regimes. 

In this podcast, Julia de Wit and Mauricio Mandujano Manriquez discuss Chimamanda Adhichie's 2013 novel 'Americannah'. Americannah is a Nigerian slang for Nigerians who live in America and through her characters Adhichie explores the questions of migration, race and belonging.  

Rüya Erdoğan and Mirjam Wolting discuss Bernardine Evaristo's 'Blonde Roots'. Evaristo’s 2008 novel reverses the roles in the narrative of slavery, placing Africans as masters and Europeans as slaves through a fictional story of Doris, a white girl from England who is abducted and shipped to the fictional United Kingdom of Great Ambossa.