Last update:
9 February 2010
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History of the Literary Cultures of East-Central EuropeJunctures and disjunctures in the 19th and 20th centuriesVolume III: The making and remaking of literary institutions
2007. xiv, 522 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Hardbound
– In stock
978 90 272 3455 1 / EUR 190.00 / USD 285.00
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– Available from e-book platforms
The third volume in the History of the Literary Cultures of East-Central Europe focuses on the making and remaking of those institutional structures that engender and regulate the creation, distribution, and reception of literature. The focus here is not so much on shared institutions but rather on such region-wide analogous institutional processes as the national awakening, the modernist opening, and the communist regimentation, the canonization of texts, and censorship of literature. These processes, which took place in all of the region’s cultures, were often asynchronous and subjected to different local conditions. The volume’s premise is that the national awakening and institutionalization of literature were symbiotically interrelated in East-Central Europe. Each national awakening involves a language renewal, an introduction of the vernacular and its literature in schools and universities, the creation of an infrastructure for the publication of books and journals, clashes with censorship, the founding of national academies, libraries, and theaters, a (re)construction of national folklore, and the writing of histories of the vernacular literature. The four parts of this volume are titled: (1) Publishing and Censorship, (2) Theater as a Literary Institution, (3) Forging Primal Pasts: The Uses of Folk Poetry, and (4) Literary Histories: Itineraries of National Self-images.
Table of contents
“The volume's four parts [...] offer a thorough examination that leaves out any possibility of exclusions from a vast pantheon of literary institutions in East-Central Europe over the last two centuries. [...] One can only imagine the tremendous amount of research and selection that informs the long list of literary institutions profiled in the volume's insightful and judiciously chosen commentaries attachted to a particular culture, event, or literary development.”
Ileana Orlich, Arizona State University, in Recherche Littéraire / Literary Research Vol. 24 (2008)
“The History of the Literary Cultures of East-Central Europe is, in more ways than one, an exceptional publication. The project's range and the diversity of the topis covered are impressive. The informative value of the articles collected therein is immense. The authors of the essays remind us of the role of the East-Central European writers in the world literary canon. Lastly, the History of the Literary Cultures may well turn out to be a priceless scholarly inspiration, proving the nearly limitless possibilities of comparative criticism.”
“These [...] constitute an unmistakable cultural and literary-historical document in the catalogue of contemporary Europe.”
“This collection of essays marks a significant departure from traditional modes of cultural scholarship. [...] This collection of inter-connected essays is highly successful in re-articulating the history of East-Central European literatures by considering the various 'nodal' points through consistent comparative principles. [...] This study will prove highly worthy not only to those who are interested in East-Central European culture, but also those who seek scholarly and analytic alternatives to exclusionary and hegemonic approaches to the understanding of literature. This volume features a refreshing, pragmatic and enlightened methodology that interprets and illuminates regional cultural developments while recognizing the transformative effects of the larger regional and global milieu.”
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Literature & Literary Studies