![]() |
![]() |
Your cart is empty |
||
Showing 1 - 9 of 9 matches in All Departments
This book focuses on the cultural processes by which the idea of a
Yugoslav nation was developed and on the reasons that this idea
ultimately failed to bind the South Slavs into a viable nation and
state. The author argues that the collapse of multinational
Yugoslavia and the establishment of separate uninational states did
not result from the breakdown of the political or economic fabric
of the Yugoslav state; rather, that breakdown itself sprang from
the destruction of the concept of a Yugoslav nation. Had such a
concept been retained, a collapse of political authority would have
been followed by the eventual reconstitution of a Yugoslav state,
as happened after World War II, rather than the creation of
separate nation-states.
The author traces the role of Russian literature over two hundred years in creating and sustaining the notion of the singularity of their own history and of its relationship to the history of the outside world.The author describes the development of this tradition through an analysis of major works including Karamzin's History of the Russian State, Tolstoy's War and Peace, and Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov. His analysis of this tradition has a dual purpose: to provide a window on the peculiarly Russian attitude toward history and to allow us to read some major works of Russian literature in a new light. The book will be of interest not only to Slavists, but to anyone concerned with the interaction between history and literature.
For most English-speaking readers, Russian literature consists of a
small number of individual writers - nineteenth-century masters
such as Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and Turgenev - or a few well-known
works - Chekhov's plays, Brodsky's poems, and perhaps Master and
Margarita and Doctor Zhivago from the twentieth century. The
medieval period, as well as the brilliant tradition of Russian
lyric poetry from the eighteenth century to the present, are almost
completely terra incognita, as are the complex prose experiments of
Nikolai Gogol, Nikolai Leskov, Andrei Belyi, and Andrei Platonov.
Furthermore, those writers who have made an impact are generally
known outside of the contexts in which they wrote and in which
their work has been received.
The author traces the role of Russian literature over two hundred years in creating and sustaining the notion of the singularity of their own history and of its relationship to the history of the outside world.The author describes the development of this tradition through an analysis of major works including Karamzin's History of the Russian State, Tolstoy's War and Peace, and Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov. His analysis of this tradition has a dual purpose: to provide a window on the peculiarly Russian attitude toward history and to allow us to read some major works of Russian literature in a new light. The book will be of interest not only to Slavists, but to anyone concerned with the interaction between history and literature.
This book focuses on the cultural processes by which the idea of a
Yugoslav nation was developed and on the reasons that this idea
ultimately failed to bind the South Slavs into a viable nation and
state. The author argues that the collapse of multinational
Yugoslavia and the establishment of separate uninational states did
not result from the breakdown of the political or economic fabric
of the Yugoslav state; rather, that breakdown itself sprang from
the destruction of the concept of a Yugoslav nation. Had such a
concept been retained, a collapse of political authority would have
been followed by the eventual reconstitution of a Yugoslav state,
as happened after World War II, rather than the creation of
separate nation-states.
Petra Hulova became an overnight sensation when "All This Belongs to Me "was originally published in Czech in 2002, when the author was just twenty three years old. She has since established herself as one of the most exciting young novelists in Europe today. Writings from an Unbound Europe""is proud to publish the first translation of her work in English." All This Belongs to Me "chronicles the lives of three generations of women in a Mongolian family. Told from the point of view of a mother, three sisters, and the daughter of one of the sisters, this story of secrets and betrayals takes us from the daily rhythms of nomadic life on the steppe to the harsh realities of urban alcoholism and prostitution in the capital, Ulaanbaatar." All This Belongs to Me" is a sweeping family saga that showcases Hulova's genius.
Stories within stories, a few contemporary fables, a hint of the narrative complexity of Borges, a whiff of the gritty realism of pre- and post-communist life in Eastern Europe - these are the elements that come together in a unique and surprising way in the wildly imaginative and endlessly engaging short stories of Georgi Gospodinov. Whether a tongue-in-cheek crime/horror story or the Christmas story of a pig, a language game leading to an unexpected epiphany or an inward-looking tale built on the complexity of a puzzle box, the work in this collection offers a kaleidoscopic experience of a writer whose style has been described as ""anarchic, experimental"" (""New Yorker"") and ""compulsively readable"" (""New York Times""). Gospodinov's debut prose work ""Natural Novel"" was hailed as a ""go-for-broke postmodern construction - a devilish jam of jump-cut narration, pop culture riffs, wholesale quotation, and Chinese-box authorship"" (""Village Voice""). At once familiar and fantastic, his writing is high comedy, high seriousness, and of very high order.
In Tworki, a village just southwest of Warsaw, there is a psychiatric hospital and in that hospital, the patients and their caretakers are hidden from the war just outside their iron gates. Our hero, Jurek, answers an ad in the paper for a job there and finds himself keeping the books alongside a knock-out strawberry blonde named Sonia. They and their group of friends - vital young people like Marcel, an initial rival for Jurek; Olek, Sonia's chosen love; and Janka, with whom Jurek becomes involved - do their jobs, picnic on the weekends, and dance in the gardens on the grounds of the hospital.Jurek speaks often of, and even in, verse, whether he is talking to his friends or in letters to a distant and admiring cousin. He and his friends live lives that defy the discord and destruction of the war in Europe, striving to rediscover or save whatever beauty they can. Much of this beauty is embodied by Sonia, who is beloved of all the friends and patients at the asylum.But the revitalizing spring they all hope will come for Poland is not to arrive this year. Despite the relative safety of their odd surroundings, the world and the war soon come for the friends. Olek's absences are longer and unexplained. Marcel is not what he seems, and he and his wife mysteriously disappear, she says, to the gas. And the perfection that Sonia embodies cannot ultimately be kept, by the friends, by the nation, or even by Sonia herself.
Stories within stories, a few contemporary fables, a hint of the narrative complexity of Borges, a whiff of the gritty realism of pre- and post-communist life in Eastern Europe - these are the elements that come together in a unique and surprising way in the wildly imaginative and endlessly engaging short stories of Georgi Gospodinov. Whether a tongue-in-cheek crime/horror story or the Christmas story of a pig, a language game leading to an unexpected epiphany or an inward-looking tale built on the complexity of a puzzle box, the work in this collection offers a kaleidoscopic experience of a writer whose style has been described as ""anarchic, experimental"" (""New Yorker"") and ""compulsively readable"" (""New York Times""). Gospodinov's debut prose work ""Natural Novel"" was hailed as a ""go-for-broke postmodern construction - a devilish jam of jump-cut narration, pop culture riffs, wholesale quotation, and Chinese-box authorship"" (""Village Voice""). At once familiar and fantastic, his writing is high comedy, high seriousness, and of very high order.
|
![]() ![]() You may like...
|