Guido Snel ( Amstelveen , 1972) is a writer and an assistant professor (UD) teaching in the department of European Studies. He specializes in contemporary European literatures, with a specific focus on Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans.

Current research project

In 2012 I will be working on a number of case studies which center on spatial metaphor and imaginary European geographies, under the umbrella title Bridge and Wall: Persistence of East-West and Balkan imaginaries in post-1989 Europe .

Field of research

Much of my earlier research took place in the context of John Neubauer and Marcel Cornis-Pope's monumental History of the Literary Cultures of East-Central Europe . In 2003 I defended my Ph.D. entitled Fictionalized Autobiography and the Idea of Central Europe , a genre study on the merging of the art of the novel and of autobiographical writing in the oeuvre of writers as diverse as Danilo Kis, Peter Esterhazy, Bohumil Hrabal and others. An ongoing interest is with art and literature that was made or written during the Bosnian war, or that reflects on it. Other fields of research interest: multilingualism, literature as cultural memory, and debates on the (non)sense of a European literature.

European Literature in SPUI25

In collaboration with academic debate center SPUI25, and in the year 2010-11 with the European Cultural Foundation, the department of European Studies has been hosting for a number of years now visiting writers. Memorable public sessions with authors such as Aifric Campbell, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Jens-Christian Grondahl, Dasa Drndic, Jachym Topol, Nelleke Noordervliet, Gyorgy Dragoman, and others.

• chimamanda ngozi adichie speech

Teaching

I have been involved in various courses dealing with European memory, the literary and cultural history of East-Central Europe, and cultural diversity as a European(izing) phenomenon.

Fiction

I have been publishing fiction (in Dutch) since 1999. Most recently Mr. Lugosi's Butler (2008) and Ayla en Hugo (together with Nurnaz Deniz, 2011). My work has been translated into Croatian and Turkish.

Non-fiction: Met gesloten ogen/Gozlerim Kapali

Met gesloten ogen. Zwerven door Amsterdam, Istanbul en Antwerpen is a bilingual Dutch/Turkish volume of travel writing, essays and poetry about the shared urban experience of three cities that have deeply altered by recent flows of migration. Contributions by Alfred Schaffer, Rashid Novaire, Maria Barnas, Annelies Verbeke, Tom Naegels, Ugur Ziya, Seray Sahiner, Zeynep Koylu. Published by Van Gennep, Amsterdam 2012 .

Non-fiction: Alter Ego

Alter Ego. Twenty Confrontations on the European Experience contains 5 portaits and 15 self-portraits of European artists and thinkers. The book addreses questions like Where is Europe? Who is Europe? What is a European? Whom do we actually address when we speak of our 'fellow Europeans'? The book was published by Amsterdam University Press in 2004, with the support of the European Cultural Foundation.

Literary translation

Translation from Bosnian/Croatian/Serbianof works by  Krleža, Crnjanski,Tišma, Štiks, Mehmedinović, Drndić, Suljagić.

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