Writers as Public Intellectuals

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

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2. Transformations of the Public Intellectual

   • Odile Heynders

   Pages 1-25

3. Conscientious Chronicler

   • H. M. Enzensberger

   Pages 26-51

4. Eastern European Voices

   • Slavenka Drakulić, Dubravka Ugresić

   Pages 52-73

5. Public Man as Actor

   • Bernard-Henri Lévy

   Pages 74-96

6. A Protean Public Figure

   • Ayaan Hirsi Ali

   Pages 97-120

7. Public Intellectuals from Brussels

   • David van Reybrouck, Geert van Istendael

   Pages 121-138

8. Responsible Satire

   • Hamed Abdel-Samad

   Pages 139-159

9. Popular Fiction

   • Elif Shafak

   Pages 160-181

10. Back Matter

    Pages 182-218

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This book demonstrates how authors performing the role of a public intellectual discuss ideas and opinions regarding society while using literary strategies and devices in and beyond the text. Their assumed persona thereby reads the world as a book - interpreting it and offering alternative scenarios for understanding it.

• Modern European literature
• Society
• Literary device
• Persona
• Satire
• democracy
• Europe
• fiction
• modern European literature
• public intellectuals
• society

• Tilburg University, The Netherlands

  Odile Heynders

Odile Heynders is Professor of Comparative Literature at Tilburg University in the Netherlands. Her research interests include contemporary literary history, intellectual history and cultural studies, and her publications include articles in journals such as the European Journal of Life Writing, Journal of Dutch Literature and a chapter in New Public Spheres: Recontextualising the Intellectual (ed. Thijssen et al, 2013).

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