THE EXTENSION

Tessa Szyszkowitz in conversation with Robert Menasse

THE EXTENSION
Should the European Union accept further members?

Enlargement is Robert Menasse's second major EU book. In it, the award-winning author describes „a story of biblical drasticness, which is contrasted with the legal views of the political organisation to which Menasse has dedicated himself as a committed intellectual“. (FAZ) Menasse emphasises the contradiction that you can win national elections within the EU with anti-European rhetoric, while you can win elections outside the EU by sending out pro-European signals. What does that do to people here and there?

Using Albania as an example, Menasse not only tells of the hopes and disappointments of those who stand before Fortress Europe. He also writes about the so-called „oath virgins“ - an old Albanian tradition in which women declare themselves to be men. For Menasse, this is a good contribution to the transgender debate. What are the EU's values? What can members and candidate countries learn from each other?

Robert Menasse is a Viennese writer who has received numerous awards for his novels. He received the German Book Prize in 2017 for his first major EU novel „Die Hauptstadt“ and the Bruno Kreisky Prize for the Political Book of 2022 for his second major European novel „Die Erweiterung“.

Tessa Szyszkowitz is a journalist and author, based in London since 2010. Before that, she was a correspondent in Moscow, Brussels and Jerusalem. She writes regularly for Falter, profil & Cicero, is curator of the Philoxenia series at the Kreiskyforum and a Distinguished Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London.