Of narcissism, as Flaubert said of stupidity, it can aso be said that it is found in all ages, but each age has its own narcissism. That of our time appears to be an omnipresent germ in all aspects of individual and collective life, active in the multiple political, cultural, economic, social, technological and communication systems, giving rise, directly or indirectly, closely or remotely, to the greatest perversions, excesses and arbitrariness, and jeopardising primordial ethical codes and the founding rules of coexistence. The subject of the Electra 27 central dossier is exactly ‘Narcissism,’ one of the traits that shape our time, presenting essays and interviews by prominent authors such as Élisabeth Roudinesco, Sinziana Ravini, Miguel Benasayag, Dominique Rabaté, António Bracinha Vieira and Vincent Cocquebert.
In this issue, anthropologist Giulia Bogliolo Bruna writes about Jean Malaurie, a sage whose life was like a novel: scientific explorer of the polar regions and defender of the rights of Arctic minorities, particularly of the indigenous peoples in Greenland, ethnohistorian, geographer and writer, Malaurie was also director of the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales and founder of the prestigious ‘Terre Humaine’ collection.
Yuri Slezkine, professor at the Universities of Berkeley and Oxford and considered one of the world's leading experts on Russian history, summons a beautiful and original memory of Moscow, combining his personal story with the history of the city, visiting different periods, political and cultural figures, memorable events and places of worship.
This issue’s ‘In the First Person’ section features acclaimed British author and essayist Geoff Dyer, who speaks to Electra about books, photographs and the idea of the end, exploring a variety of themes in contemporary culture, ranging from the creative process of writing to the attention to the world that images evoke.
Also in this issue we find recent works by artist Francisca Carvalho; poet, playwright and filmmaker Regina Guimarães comments on a statement by Jean Genet about art and politics; architect Gilles Delalex, founder of Studio Muoto, questions whether anarchist reasoning can generate an architecture; writer and curator Thomas Dylan Eaton tells the story of the famous Hanuman book collection, from India to New York and San Francisco in the late 20th century; Afonso Dias Ramos comments on and connects two of the most eagerly awaited publications of recent years, the catalogue of photographic materials that belonged to W. G. Sebald, and the letters that John Berger exchanged with his son at the end of his life; and journalist Bárbara Reis writes about the word ‘Bubble.’
