The Columbia Guide to the Literatures of Eastern Europe Since 1945

by Harold B. Segel

Overview

For nearly half a century, the Iron Curtain obscured from Western eyes a vital group of national and regional writers. Seen as a whole, the literatures of Eastern Europe during the second half of the twentieth century are extraordinarily rich, and in recent years many Eastern European novelists, poets, and playwrights have attracted wider attention and broader publication in the West. And yet no reference work, embracing all the countries of this region, including the former East Germany, has brought synoptic analysis to bear on these literatures—until now.

Featuring lucid analyses of the works of Ivo Andric´, Milan Kundera, Wislawa Szymborksa, Ismail Kadare, Czeslaw Milosz, Christa Wolf, Imre Kertész, and Nina Cassian, among nearly 700 others, The Columbia Guide to the Literatures of Eastern Europe Since 1945 is an indispensable reference to the literatures of the former Soviet bloc: Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the former republics of Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and East Germany. Marked by geographical proximity and the shared experience of communism and its collapse, these countries are home to writers whose works have illuminated many of the critical ideas and key events of the latter half of the twentieth century.

Compiled by a leading scholar who has a working knowledge of all the languages of the region, the Guide includes an analytical overview of literary themes and trends in historical context, ranging from World War II to the disintegration of Yugoslavia; an A–Z section of almost 700 entries on those writers whose literary debuts or major literary activity came after the war, with lists of works about the authors and of works by the authors available in English translation; a general bibliography; and an author index.

The author entries—the heart of the book—provide the most salient information about the writers and concise interpretations of their works. The two-part general bibliography lists references to books and articles only in English. The first part contains works of a general nature on Eastern Europe, primarily but not exclusively after 1945. The second cites works, listed by country, that fall into four categories: histories, literary histories, anthologies, and monographs on genres and movements.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231114042
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	03/26/2003
Series:	The Columbia Guides to Literature Since 1945
Pages:	512
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Harold B. Segel is professor emeritus of Slavic literatures and of comparative literature at Columbia University. He is the author of over a dozen books, two of which—Twentieth-Century Russian Drama from Gorky to the Present and Turn-of the-Century Cabaret: Berlin, Munich, Paris, Barcelona, Vienna, Krakow, St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Zurich—were published by Columbia University Press.
Howard B. Segel is the author of more than a dozen books including Body Ascendant: Modernism and the Physical Imperative, Pinocchio's Progeny, Twentieth Century Russian Drama (CU Press), and Turn-of-the-Century Caberet (CU Press). He is Professor Emeritus of Slavic Literature at Columbia University.

Table of Contents

Preface
Chronology of Major Political Events, 1944-2001
Journals, Newspapers, and Other Periodical Literature
Note on Orthography, Transliteration, and Titles
Introduction: The Literature of Eastern Europe from 1945 to the Present
Authors A-Z
Selected Bibliography
Author Index

What People are Saying About This

Victor A. Friedman

A major achievement, this uniquely valuable reference work gathers together in one place many years'worth of research that covers all of geopolitical Eastern Europe. Anyone interested in the region, regardless of whether that interest is academic, policy-oriented, based on heritage, or just curiosity, will find interesting and useful information here as well as the inspiration to read further.

— Victor A. Friedman, Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities and Chair, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Chicago

Istvan Deak

This magnificent volume contains a superb introduction, several useful gazetteers, information on orthography and transliteration, a fine bibliography, and, most importantly, the extraordinarily rich and often exciting biographies of modern Eastern Europe's intellectual greats and not-so-greats. No one should undertake to write on any aspect of the subject without having Harold Segel's book at hand.

István Deák

This magnificent volume contains a superb introduction, several useful gazetteers, information on orthography and transliteration, a fine bibliography, and, most importantly, the extraordinarily rich and often exciting biographies of modern Eastern Europe's intellectual greats and not-so-greats. No one should undertake to write on any aspect of the subject without having Harold Segel's book at hand.

Larry Wolff

This book is a work of astonishing erudition and an indispensable resource for both literary critics and intellectual historians of the twentieth century. Harold Segel permits us to appreciate, perhaps for the first time, the dazzling complexity of postwar intellectual life in Eastern Europe. All the conventional narratives of European literary and intellectual history, with their biases toward Western Europe, are revealed as incomplete by half at least, and Segel's exploration of the writers of Eastern Europe suggests the contours of a more comprehensive and integrated history. At the same time, this work is invaluable for considering the tragic and twisted encounter between communism and European culture in the twentieth century.

— Larry Wolff, author of Inventing Eastern Europe

Editorial Reviews

No such handy, erudite guide to the postwar literary traditions of these thirteen nations was available until now...This is an excellent, much-needed reference work, which should be found within reach of every scholar of Eastern European literature... Surely, higher praise for a book cannot be conceived than this, that its only 'flaw' is that it leaves the reader yearning for more of the same?

Polish Review - Halina Stephan

Undoubtedly, Segal'sThe Columbia Guide to the Literatures of Eastern Europe Since 1945 is an invaluable reference.

Text and Presentation - Eileen Krajewski

The Columbia Guide conveys this encyclopedic breadth in distilled, ready reference form... serves scholars, teachers, students and librarians alike.

Michael Bigginsn Reference Books Annual

Assembled by an eminently qualified expert on the literatures of Eastern Europe, this prodigious compilation... provides historical, political, and literary context for the period... [N]o single work in English is nearly so comprehensive.

Choice

This superb guide to authors and their works fills a much-needed gap in reference works on literature.

Terri Tickle Millern Reference Books Annual

A timely resource that provides a wide range of information on almost 700 authors from Albania, the former East Germany, Serbia, Slovenia and others, filling what would seem to be a considerable gap.

Booklist

It is, of course, thrilling when a senior scholar of Harold Segel's distinction undertakes such tasks. It means that the priorities and emphases in all parts of the book will cohere...Segal has wisely resolved that key to putting a new area on the inner map of American readers is to provide a face, a life, and further reading.

Comparative Literature - Caryl Emerson Caryl Emerson

It is, of course, thrilling when a senior scholar of Harold Segel's distinction undertakes such tasks. It means that the priorities and emphases in all parts of the book will cohere...Segal has wisely resolved that key to putting a new area on the inner map of American readers is to provide a face, a life, and further reading.

Comparative Literature - Caryl Emerson

This superb guide to authors and their works fills a much-needed gap in reference works on literature.

American Reference Books Annual - Terri Tickle Miller

The Columbia Guide conveys this encyclopedic breadth in distilled, ready reference form... serves scholars, teachers, students and librarians alike.

American Reference Books Annual - Michael Biggins

A timely resource that provides a wide range of information on almost 700 authors from Albania, the former East Germany, Serbia, Slovenia and others, filling what would seem to be a considerable gap.

Booklist

Undoubtedly, Segal's The Columbia Guide to the Literatures of Eastern Europe Since 1945 is an invaluable reference.

— Eileen Krajewski

Text and Presentation

It is, of course, thrilling when a senior scholar of Harold Segel's distinction undertakes such tasks. It means that the priorities and emphases in all parts of the book will cohere...Segal has wisely resolved that key to putting a new area on the inner map of American readers is to provide a face, a life, and further reading.

— Caryl Emerson, Princeton University

Comparative Literature

No such handy, erudite guide to the postwar literary traditions of these thirteen nations was available until now...This is an excellent, much-needed reference work, which should be found within reach of every scholar of Eastern European literature... Surely, higher praise for a book cannot be conceived than this, that its only 'flaw' is that it leaves the reader yearning for more of the same?

— Halina Stephan

Polish Review

This superb guide to authors and their works fills a much-needed gap in reference works on literature.

— Terri Tickle Miller

American Reference Books Annual

The "Eastern Europe" of this great new research tool does not refer strictly to geography but to those countries that emerged from World War II under the Soviet sphere of influence and/or were dominated by Communist governments until the late 1980s and 1990s. This massive work reveals an important and thriving region of writers, mainly unknown in the West, who share the devastating experiences of World War II and its aftermath as well as life under communism and its dissolution. Coming from very different social, ethnic, religious, and linguistic traditions, the literatures of Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and the former states of Czechoslovakia, East Germany, and Yugoslavia are nevertheless unified by common themes and subjects. Segel (Slavic literatures and comparative literature, emeritus, Columbia), the author of numerous books on modern Russian and Eastern European literature, lays out the striking complexity of the region's intellectual life and the lives and work of its writers. In his brilliant introduction, he contributes a magnificently comprehensive, 34-page review article on the region's intellectual life since the war and its history, politics, peoples, and cultures, as well as its literatures. The volume also contains an author index, a lengthy bibliography, an extensive chronology of major political events, and a list of periodicals from all the countries covered. But the biographies of 700 writers are the heart of the book. Each provides basic information about the author, including descriptive and critical material about his or her works. While this guide is very inclusive, the authors were chosen partially on the basis of their availability in English translation, although no worthy writer was excluded simply because his or her work was not translated. This is the first reference work to cover all the countries of the region for this time period. Highly recommended for academic libraries and all libraries collecting modern European literature.-Paul D'Alessandro, Portland P.L., ME Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

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