Zygmunt Bauman - Making the Familiar Unfamiliar

1 Title Page Making the Familiar Unfamiliar A Conversation with Peter Haffner Zygmunt Bauman Translated by Daniel Steuer polity

2 Copyright Page

3 Editorial Note

4 Preface Note

5 Love and Gender Choosing a partner: why we are losing the capacity to love

6 Experience and Remembrance Fate: how we make the history that makes us Notes

7 Jewishness and Ambivalence Adaptation: why were Jews attracted to communism? Note

8 Intellect and Commitment Sociology: why it should not separate objective from personal experience Notes

9 Power and Identity Modernity: on the compulsion to be no one, or become someone else Notes

10 Society and Responsibility Solidarity: why everyone becomes everyone else’s enemy Notes

11 Religion and Fundamentalism The end of the world: why it is important to believe in (a non-existent) God Notes

12 Utopia and History Time travel: where is ‘the beyond’ today?

13 Present and Future Human waste: who are the witches of modern society? Notes

14 Happiness and Morality The good life: what does it mean to take off shoes that are too tight? Notes

15 Select bibliography Zygmunt Bauman Janina Bauman

16 End User License Agreement

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2 Table of Contents

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Zygmunt Bauman

Translated by Daniel Steuer

polity

Copyright © 2017 by Peter Haffner

Translated from the German language: ZYGMUNT BAUMAN, Das Vertraute unvertraut machen. Ein Gespräch mit Peter Haffner. First published in Germany by: Hoffmann & Campe

This English edition © 2020 by Polity Press

The translation of this work was supported by a grant from the Goethe-Institut.

Polity Press

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All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-4230-7

ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-4231-4 (paperback)

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Bauman, Zygmunt, 1925-2017, interviewee. | Haffner, Peter, 1953-interviewer.

Title: Making the familiar unfamiliar : a conversation with Peter Haffner / Zygmunt Bauman ; translated by Daniel Steuer.

Other titles: Vertraute unvertraut machen. English.

Description: Cambridge, UK ; Medford, MA : Polity Press, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references. | Summary: “The last interview of one of the greatest social thinkers of our time”-- Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020012868 (print) | LCCN 2020012869 (ebook) | ISBN 9781509542307 (hardback) | ISBN 9781509542314 (paperback) | ISBN 9781509542321 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Bauman, Zygmunt, 1925-2017--Interviews. | Sociologists--Poland-- Interviews. | Civilization, Modern--20th century. | Sociology--Philosophy.

Classification: LCC HM479.B39 A5 2020 (print) | LCC HM479.B39 (ebook) | DDC 301.092--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020012868

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020012869

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The conversations with Zygmunt Bauman that form the basis of this book took place on 10 February 2014 and 21–23 April 2016 at his home in Leeds, England. In addition, Bauman provided me with notes containing biographical information and thoughts on various topics, as well as with excerpts from his then forthcoming book Retrotopia , and he asked me to make use of certain passages of these written sources as answers to some of my questions, so that he would not need to repeat himself in conversation. He also asked me to make use, at one point, of his answers to two questions that had been put to him in an interview conducted by Efrain Kristal and Arne De Boever and published under the title ‘Disconnecting Acts’ in the Los Angeles Review of Books of 11/12 November 2014. In total, the passages based on all these written sources amount to about a dozen pages of the text.

My 2014 interview appeared on 4 July 2015 under the title ‘Die Welt, in der wir leben’ [The world we live in] in Das Magazin (the Saturday supplement of Tages-Anzeiger , Basler Zeitung , Berner Zeitung and Der Bund ).

Peter Haffner

When I visited Zygmunt Bauman for the first time, I was astonished by what seemed a contradiction between the person and his work. Arguably the most influential European sociologist, someone whose anger about the state of the world can be felt in his every line, Bauman enchanted me with his wry sense of humour. His charm was disarming, his joie de vivre infectious.