History of the Literary Cultures of East-central Europe: Junctures and Disjunctures in the 19th and 20th Centuries, Volume 2 (Comparative History of Literatures in European Languages)

Continuing the work undertaken in Vol. 1 of the "History of the Literary Cultures of East-Central Europe," Vol. 2 considers various topographic sites multicultural cities, border areas, cross-cultural corridors, multiethnic regions that cut across national boundaries, rendering them permeable to the flow of hybrid cultural messages. By focusing on the literary cultures of specific geographical locations, this volume intends to put into practice a new type of comparative study. Traditional comparative literary studies establish transnational comparisons and contrasts, but thereby reconfirm, however inadvertently, the very national borders they play down. This volume inverts the expansive momentum of comparative studies towards ever-broader regional, European, and world literary histories. While the theater of this volume is still the literary culture of East-Central Europe, the contributors focus on pinpointed local traditions and geographic nodal points. Their histories of Riga, Plovdiv, Timioara or Budapest, of Transylvania or the Danube corridor to take a few examples reveal how each of these sites was during the last two-hundred years a home for a variety of foreign or ethnic literary traditions next to the one now dominant within the national borders. By foregrounding such non-national or hybrid traditions, this volume pleads for a diversification and pluralization of local and national histories. A genuine comparatist revival of literary history should involve the recognition that treading on native grounds means actually treading on grounds cultivated by diverse people." Comparative History of Literatures in European Languages 20 History of the Literary Cultures of East-Central Europe. Volume II 2 Editorial page 3 Title page 4 LCC data 5 Table of contents 6 Editors’ Preface 10 Acknowledgements 12 Note on Documentation and Translation 14 Table of contents, Volume I 16 In Preparation 20 Introduction: Mapping the Literary Interfaces of East-Central Europe 26 1. Cities as Sites of Hybrid Literary Identity and Multicultural Production 34 Introduction: Representing East-Central Europe’s Marginocentric Cities 34 Vilnius/Wilno/Vilna: The Myth of Division and the Myth of Connection 36 The Tartu/Tallinn Dialectic in Estonian Letters and Culture 53 Monuments and the Literary Culture of Riga 65 Czernowitz/Cernauti/Chernovtsy/Chernivtsi/Czerniowce: A Testing Ground for Pluralism 82 'The City That Is No More, the City That Will Stand Forever': Danzig/Gdansk as Homeland in the Writings of Günter Grass, Pawel Huelle, and Stefan Chwin 102 On the Borders of Mighty Empires: Bucharest, City of Merging Paradigms 118 Literary Production in a Marginocentric Cultural Node: The Case of Timisoara 130 Plovdid: The Text of the City vs. the Texts of Literature 149 The Torn Soul of a City: Trieste as a Center of Polyphonic Culture and Literature 170 Topographies of Literary Culture in Budapest 187 Prague: Magnetic Fields or the Staging of the Avant-Garde 201 Cities in Ashkenaz: Sites of Identity, Cultural Production, Utopic or Dystopic Visions 207 2. Regional Sites of Cultural Hybridization 238 Introduction: Literature in Multicultural Corridors and Regions 238 A. The Literary Cultures of the Danubian Corridor 242 Mapping the Danubian Literary Mosaic 242 Upstream and Downstream the Danube 249 The Intercultural Corridor of the “Other” Danube 257 B. Regions as Cultural Interfaces 270 Transylvania’s Literary Cultures: Rivalry and Interaction 270 The Hybrid Soil of the Balkans: A Topography of Albanian literature 308 Up and Down in Croatian Literary Geography: The Case of the Krugovaši 326 Ashkenaz or the Jewish Cultural Presence in East-Central Europe 339 C. Representing Transnational (Real or Imaginary) Regional Spaces 358 The Return of Pannonia as Imaginary Topos and Space of Homelessness 358 Jan Lam and Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach: Galicia in the Historical Imagination of Nineteenth-Century Writers 369 Macedonia in Bulgarian Literature 382 Transformations of Imagined Landscapes: Istra and Šavrinija as Intercultural Narratives 389 3. The Literary Reconstruction of East-Central Europe’s Imagined. Communities: Native to Diasporic 400 Introduction: Crossing Geographic and Cultural Boundaries, Reinventing Literary Identities 400 Kafka, Švejk, and the Butcher’s Wife, or Postcommunism/Postcolonialism and Central Europe 401 Tsarigrad/Istanbul/Constantinople and the Spatial Construction of Bulgarian National Identity in the Nineteenth Century 415 Paradoxical Renaissance Abroad: Ukrainian Émigré Literature, 1945–1950 438 Paris as a Constitutive East-Central European Topos: The Case of Polish and Romanian Literatures 453 A Tragic One-Way Ticket to Universality: Bucharest–Paris–Auschwitz, or the Case of Benjamin Fundoianu 468 Works cited 478 Index of East-Central European Names 520 List of Contributors to Volume 2 536 The series Comparative History of Literatures in European Languages 538 *,Publisher:,John,Benjamins,Publishing,Co,*,Number,Of,Pages:,512,*,Publication,Date:,2006-09-13,*,ISBN-10,/,ASIN:,9027234531,*,ISBN-13,/,EAN:,9789027234537 History of the Literary Cultures of East-Central Europe. Volume II......Page 2 Editorial page......Page 3 Title page......Page 4 LCC data......Page 5 Table of contents......Page 6 Editors’ Preface......Page 10 Acknowledgements......Page 12 Note on Documentation and Translation......Page 14 Table of contents, Volume I......Page 16 In Preparation......Page 20 Introduction: Mapping the Literary Interfaces of East-Central Europe......Page 26 Introduction: Representing East-Central Europe’s Marginocentric Cities......Page 34 Vilnius/Wilno/Vilna: The Myth of Division and the Myth of Connection......Page 36 The Tartu/Tallinn Dialectic in Estonian Letters and Culture......Page 53 Monuments and the Literary Culture of Riga......Page 65 Czernowitz/Cernauti/Chernovtsy/Chernivtsi/Czerniowce: A Testing Ground for Pluralism......Page 82 'The City That Is No More, the City That Will Stand Forever': Danzig/Gdansk as Homeland in the Writings of Günter Grass, Pawel Huelle, and Stefan Chwin......Page 102 On the Borders of Mighty Empires: Bucharest, City of Merging Paradigms......Page 118 Literary Production in a Marginocentric Cultural Node: The Case of Timisoara......Page 130 Plovdid: The Text of the City vs. the Texts of Literature......Page 149 The Torn Soul of a City: Trieste as a Center of Polyphonic Culture and Literature......Page 170 Topographies of Literary Culture in Budapest......Page 187 Prague: Magnetic Fields or the Staging of the Avant-Garde......Page 201 Cities in Ashkenaz: Sites of Identity, Cultural Production, Utopic or Dystopic Visions......Page 207 Introduction: Literature in Multicultural Corridors and Regions......Page 238 Mapping the Danubian Literary Mosaic......Page 242 Upstream and Downstream the Danube......Page 249 The Intercultural Corridor of the “Other” Danube......Page 257 Transylvania’s Literary Cultures: Rivalry and Interaction......Page 270 The Hybrid Soil of the Balkans: A Topography of Albanian literature......Page 308 Up and Down in Croatian Literary Geography: The Case of the Krugovaši......Page 326 Ashkenaz or the Jewish Cultural Presence in East-Central Europe......Page 339 The Return of Pannonia as Imaginary Topos and Space of Homelessness......Page 358 Jan Lam and Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach: Galicia in the Historical Imagination of Nineteenth-Century Writers......Page 369 Macedonia in Bulgarian Literature......Page 382 Transformations of Imagined Landscapes: Istra and Šavrinija as Intercultural Narratives......Page 389 Introduction: Crossing Geographic and Cultural Boundaries, Reinventing Literary Identities......Page 400 Kafka, Švejk, and the Butcher’s Wife, or Postcommunism/Postcolonialism and Central Europe......Page 401 Tsarigrad/Istanbul/Constantinople and the Spatial Construction of Bulgarian National Identity in the Nineteenth Century......Page 415 Paradoxical Renaissance Abroad: Ukrainian Émigré Literature, 1945–1950......Page 438 Paris as a Constitutive East-Central European Topos: The Case of Polish and Romanian Literatures......Page 453 A Tragic One-Way Ticket to Universality: Bucharest–Paris–Auschwitz, or the Case of Benjamin Fundoianu......Page 468 Works cited......Page 478 Index of East-Central European Names......Page 520 List of Contributors to Volume 2......Page 536 The series Comparative History of Literatures in European Languages......Page 538 National literary histories based on internally homogeneous native traditions have significantly contributed to the construction of national identities, especially in multicultural East-Central Europe, the region between the German and Russian hegemonic cultural powers stretching from the Baltic states to the Balkans. History of the Literary Cultures of East-Central Europe, which covers the last two hundred years, reconceptualizes these literary traditions by de-emphasizing the national myths and by highlighting analogies and points of contact, as well as hybrid and marginal phenomena that tra