Czech graphic artist Kája Saudek finally gets his due with new Prague museum The artistic style is unmistakable to Czech eyes: cowboys, aliens, machine gun-toting gangsters, stylish super cars and an abundance of scantily-clad, big-breasted women. With the opening of Kája Saudek Comics Museum off of Prague’s Wenceslas Square, the artist’s work will gain the […]
The PennSound collection of audio recordings of writers and artists includes readings and discussions with contemporary Russian poets as well as archival recordings featuring poets from Yeats to Mayakovsky. The University of Pennsylvania’s PennSound collection is an extensive archive of poetry readings, discussions, film clips and other related material and links. Contemporary Russian poets have […]
The story of Dickens baring his soul Russian-style to a visiting Dostoevsky looks to be as invented as any of their respective novels The influence of Charles Dickens on the novels of Dostoevsky seems fairly evident. In his study of the Russian writer’s work Joseph Frank recounts the impression made on Dostoevsky by reading Dickens’ […]
In a burst of end of the year cheer British political philosopher John Gray wrote an article on the BBC about the myth of progress in light of the ongoing collapse of European institutions, if not of free-market capitalism altogether. I can see his point as far as puncturing simplistic, utopian tendencies – as if […]
One of the features of Franz Kafka’s writing that some critics have had the biggest difficulty coming to terms with is his ability to take the reader from dark, despairing moments to scenes of almost slapstick comedy and then back again, sometimes in an instant, revealing parallels that both mock our sense of tragedy and […]
A selection of non-fiction about Central and Eastern Europe noted by critics in the year’s “Best of” lists The best Central and Eastern European non-fiction books of 2011 differ significantly from the fiction in that with only a couple of exceptions they are written about the region in English rather than being from the region […]
A selection of fiction from the Czech Republic to Russia noted by critics in the year’s “Best of” lists The “Best of” lists that come out at the end of the year tend to confirm received opinion for the most part and so it is not a big surprise that translated fiction does not make […]
The story begins with a vain, preening, autocratic ruler of Russia willing to manipulate the forces of law and order to strike out against even the slightest traces of disloyalty. For him no charade of justice is too cruel or too absurd if it helps prevent dissension. Just such a sinister farce took place on […]
New books, uncertainty, a seminar and why writers should attend readings in their national folk costume There is a lot of new Bulgarian literature available at Three Percent in connection with the Bulgarian Contemporary Novel Contest run by the Elizabeth Kostova Foundation (EKF) and the America for Bulgarian Foundation. First of all, the 2010 winning […]
Czech dissident publications are put on display in New York, helping to bring a dark, courageous chapter of modern history back to life Since the death of Václav Havel on Sunday, Czech television has been filled with scenes from the ‘60s through the ‘80s documenting the dissident movement the former president and playwright played such […]
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