The Columbia Guide to the Literatures of Eastern Europe Since 1945

The Iron Curtain concealed from western eyes a vital group of national and regional writers. Marked by not only geographical proximity but also by the shared experience of communism and its collapse, the countries of Eastern Europe—Poland, Hungary, Albania, Romania, Bulgaria, and the former states of Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and East Germany—share literatures that reveal many common themes when examined together. Compiled by a leading scholar, the guide includes an overview of literary trends in historical context; a listing of some 700 authors by country; and an A-to-Z section of articles on the most influential writers.

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.

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.

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

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

Caryl Emerson, Princeton University:
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.

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.

Halina Stephan:
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?

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

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.

A great new research tool... Segel 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.... Highly recommended.