Granta

Europe’s Mistake | Jürgen Habermas | Granta ‘I’ve never accepted the conception of political realism, which can be traced back to Carl Schmitt and Hans Morgenthau, that justice between nations is impossible.’

Granta was saddened to hear of Jürgen Habermas’s death. He joined Granta for an interview in 2023 and, in honour of his life and work, this interview is now free to read.

granta.com/europes-mist...

Plant Teachers | Musuk Nolte | Granta ‘Some plants are said to teach us about our lives and the universe – in Amazonian traditions these are called “plant teachers”.’ Guadalupe Nettel on Musuk Nolte's photography from the Peruvian Amazon…

‘Those who have taken part in ayahuasca ceremonies in the Americas call it la medicina.’

Guadalupe Nettel on psychoactive substances, with photography by Musuk Nolte.

granta.com/plant-teache...

The Orange Ship | Christopher Bollas | Granta ‘Of course, we all create unconscious fictions of our life and so we should.’

‘I think there’s a death wish in psychoanalysis. Many psychoanalytic societies would prefer to go down with a ship than just find another boat and renovate it and make it better.’

Granta interviews Christopher Bollas.

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Every Dark Corner | Deborah Levy | Granta ‘To believe in the talking cure, as I do, is to put one’s faith in something truly strange, but since when has any sort of faith not been strange?’

‘The therapist’s room does, in a way, resemble a film set. Even if its mood attempts to be entirely neutral, someone has art-directed its blandness.’ 

Deborah Levy on the staging of a therapist’s consulting room.

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The Perec Case | Paul Keegan | Granta ‘Perec went into analysis because he suspected that the ludic bent of his writing was in fact blocking an approach to his life story.’ Paul Keegan on Georges Perec’s psychoanalytic sessions with…

‘Psychoanalysis has its own suspicions that underneath the bonnet we are all the same, and Perec referred to the “anonymous ironmongery” of the Freudian playbook.’

Paul Keegan on Georges Perec’s psychoanalytic sessions with Jean-Bertrand Pontalis.

granta.com/the-perec-ca...

Crews Control | Christian Lorentzen | Granta ‘If you haven’t read Sophocles in a while, it’s worth reminding yourself that his Oedipus didn’t suffer from an Oedipus complex.’ Christian Lorentzen on Classics, careerism and the personality cult…

‘In Crews’s portrait Freud comes to resemble one of his kookiest latter-day enemies: L. Ron Hubbard.’

Christian Lorentzen on Frederick Crews and the Freud Wars.

granta.com/crews-control/

Mozart Balls | Camilla Grudova | Granta ‘We were making progress but I didn’t want our sessions to end too quickly, I needed the money; Chow Chow II needed a tooth removed and vets were extortionate.’

‘At our first session, I watched Sissy’s eyes wander around the room. She was thirty-seven, and had a brown bowl cut. I have noticed that classical musicians will unconsciously fashion themselves to resemble their instruments.’

Fiction by Camilla Grudova.

granta.com/mozart-balls/

Plant Teachers | Musuk Nolte | Granta ‘Some plants are said to teach us about our lives and the universe – in Amazonian traditions these are called “plant teachers”.’ Guadalupe Nettel on Musuk Nolte's photography from the Peruvian Amazon…

‘One recurring motif is the sensation of being embraced by a loving presence.’

Guadalupe Nettel on ayahuasca and Musuk Nolte’s photography.

granta.com/plant-teache...

Therapy Rooms | Nigel Shafran | Granta Nigel Shafran photographs therapists’ rooms.

Nigel Shafran photographs therapists’ rooms.

granta.com/therapy-rooms/

The Orange Ship | Christopher Bollas | Granta ‘Of course, we all create unconscious fictions of our life and so we should.’

‘Marriage is a necessary regression. We are too complicated. We’re too complex.’

Christopher Bollas on marriage, diagnostic labels and psychoanalysis.

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Every Dark Corner | Deborah Levy | Granta ‘To believe in the talking cure, as I do, is to put one’s faith in something truly strange, but since when has any sort of faith not been strange?’

‘Language is the centre of gravity in the endeavour of psychoanalysis.’

Deborah Levy on the talking cure.

granta.com/every-dark-c...

Issey Miyake | Akshi Singh | Granta ‘I’d never thought to obtain the clothes for myself, or even searched for what they looked like, and when I finally did, the experience was one of disillusion.’ Akshi Singh on wearing Issey Miyake.

‘One of the things I love about psychoanalysis is that it encourages an infinite pleating of meanings and motivations, compressed and expanding like an accordion.’ 

Akshi Singh on multiplicity, Lacan and Issey Miyake. 

granta.com/issey-miyake/

Reading: Geetanjali Shree – Berliner Künstlerprogramm des DAAD The acclaimed writer and current Literature Fellow in conversation with Thomas Meaney, editor of Granta. The evening will explore Shree’s writing and her recent work, focusing on her distinctive use…

This evening in Berlin, Geetanjali Shree will be in conversation with Granta’s editor, Thomas Meaney.

Event details here: www.berliner-kuenstlerprogramm.de/en/events/re...

‘Listen. Look at me and listen, I need you to listen to me.’

António Lobo Antunes on being a military medic during the Angolan War of Independence.

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‘I’m doing my best to survive all this, but sometimes I feel so homesick that words simply empty of meaning.’

António Lobo Antunes’s letters to his wife during the Angolan War of Independence.

granta.com/war-letters/

Granta was saddened to hear of António Lobo Antunes’s death. In honour of his life and work, we have made his writing for the magazine free to read.

Podcast | Christopher Bollas | Granta ‘I was not there to alleviate their suffering. I was there to listen to them.’ Christopher Bollas on psychoanalysis, its relationship to literature, and whether it can speak to the great crises of…

The latest episode of the Granta podcast is available now, featuring Christopher Bollas on psychoanalysis, its relationship to literature, and whether it can speak to the great crises of our time.

Listen and subscribe on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

granta.com/podcast-chri...

Reading: Geetanjali Shree – Berliner Künstlerprogramm des DAAD The acclaimed writer and current Literature Fellow in conversation with Thomas Meaney, editor of Granta. The evening will explore Shree’s writing and her recent work, focusing on her distinctive use…

Tomorrow in Berlin, Geetanjali Shree will be in conversation with Granta’s editor, Thomas Meaney. 

Event details here: www.berliner-kuenstlerprogramm.de/en/events/re...

Day Care ‘Day care meant sick baby. And sick baby meant she had to skip work to care for sick baby, and entertain sick baby with bad mom art.’ A short story by Nora Lange.

"Men were not solutions. Men were like piping, her mother said, verbally slapping her: things passed through them up until a point. The fix could be jeopardizing and costly. You could lose everything."

From Nora Lange's DAY CARE, now on @grantamag.bsky.social.

Read here: granta.com/day-care/

The Perec Case | Paul Keegan | Granta ‘Perec went into analysis because he suspected that the ludic bent of his writing was in fact blocking an approach to his life story.’ Paul Keegan on Georges Perec’s psychoanalytic sessions with…

‘Perec went into analysis because he suspected that the ludic bent of his writing was in fact blocking an approach to his life story.’  

Paul Keegan on Perec’s decision to enter into analysis with Pontalis.

granta.com/the-perec-ca...

Mozart Balls | Camilla Grudova | Granta ‘We were making progress but I didn’t want our sessions to end too quickly, I needed the money; Chow Chow II needed a tooth removed and vets were extortionate.’

‘An object will act like a magnet to a matching object buried deep within a patient’s psyche, and this requires the analyst to have a vast and varied collection of stuff.’ 

Fiction by Camilla Grudova.

granta.com/mozart-balls/

Five Images from the Life of Georg Trakl ‘We think we see Georg Trakl in this last photograph but we do not see him.’

Mathias Énard on poet Georg Trakl, from Granta a while back:

granta.com/georg-trakl/

Issey Miyake | Akshi Singh | Granta ‘I’d never thought to obtain the clothes for myself, or even searched for what they looked like, and when I finally did, the experience was one of disillusion.’ Akshi Singh on wearing Issey Miyake.

‘He was wearing Issey Miyake. I loved him, I loved his clothes, and I became ashamed of the thoughtless and chaotic way I dressed.’ 

Akshi Singh on fashion, desire and becoming a psychoanalyst. 

granta.com/issey-miyake/

Met Adam Zagajewski at a reading he gave at Cooper Union years ago, and Haas some time later when we had Poet laureates. He was one. And he finely captures Zagajewski's aura and the feel of Krakow and its beloved and beautiful Rynek.

Three Poems | Robert Hass | Granta ‘It’s late, I’m a little groggy, / but I thought you might like this report.’ Three poems by Robert Hass.

‘It’s late, I’m a little groggy, / but I thought you might like this report.’

Poetry by Robert Hass.

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Day Care | Nora Lange | Granta ‘Day care meant sick baby. And sick baby meant she had to skip work to care for sick baby, and entertain sick baby with bad mom art.’ A short story by Nora Lange.

‘Day care meant sick baby. And sick baby meant she had to skip work to care for sick baby, and entertain sick baby with bad mom art.’

A short story by Nora Lange.

granta.com/day-care/

We Are Creatures Who Mourn | Jonathan Lear | Granta ‘The outcome of analysis isn’t meant to be some sort of independent product, some story I now have.’ Benjamin Y. Fong interviews Jonathan Lear on how philosophy and psychoanalysis intersect.

‘Certain poets, certain poems, they become lifelong companions. They change the way you see things, the way you hear things.’

Benjamin Y. Fong interviews Jonathan Lear.

granta.com/we-are-creat...

Five Poems | Victor Heringer | Granta Five poems by Victor Heringer, translated from the Portuguese by James Young and Justin Greene.

‘My grandfather is the future / That’s me, on the future’s lap’

Poetry by Victor Heringer.

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‘When they placed the child on Anna’s breast after the birth, she felt nothing.’

Fiction by Olga Ravn, translated by Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell.

granta.com/my-work-olga...

‘When you are free, you inevitably feel compelled to act, but when incarcerated, you are powerless to do so.’ 

Memoir by Shahrnush Parsipur on her imprisonment, translated by Sara Khalili.

granta.com/prison-echoes/