Perspectives on Literature and Society in Eastern and Western Europe

Front Matter....Pages i-viii Introduction....Pages 1-5 Censorship as a Way of Life....Pages 7-22 Milton and the English Revolution....Pages 23-36 Literature and Society: Voltaire....Pages 37-54 The Institutionalisation of Soviet Literature....Pages 55-75 The Centrality of Rural Themes in Postwar Soviet Fiction....Pages 76-100 Social Criticism in Hungarian Literature since 1956....Pages 101-120 Literature and Society in Romania since 1948....Pages 121-161 Polish Intellectual Dissent in the Drama of 1956–70....Pages 162-181 Between Reality and Unreality: Social Criticism in Polish Literature of the 1970s....Pages 182-195 Back Matter....Pages 196-202 These essays attempt to offer an account of literature and politics over the last 30 years in the USSR and Eastern Europe, from broad-ranging theoretical and comparative perspectives. It also addresses the paradox that heavy censorship and good literature co-exist in Eastern Europe.