Instructor: I. Sanders
This course introduces students to works of literature that offer a unique perspective on the tempestuous twentieth century, if only because these works for the most part were written in “minor” languages (Czech, Polish, Hungarian, Serbian), in countries long considered part of the European backwaters, whose people were not makers but victims of history.
Yet the authors of many of these works are today ranked among the masters of modern literature. Often hailing from highly stratisfied , conservative societies, many Eastern and Central European writers became daring literary innovators and experimenters. To the present day, writers from this “other” Europe try to escape history, official cultures, politics, and end up redefining them for their readers.
We will be dealing with a disparate body of literature, varied both in form and content. But we will try to pinpoint subtle similarities, in tone and sensibility, and focus, too, on the more apparent preoccupation with certain themes that may be called characteristically Central European.
