Link: Pick Your Literary Poison An article published on Readux about Literature Night 2011 and the Night of Czech Detective Stories taking place in Bremen on May 11. (Photo by Drahomír Stulír of the Libeň Gasholder and Libeň Chateau, where some of the Prague readings will take place).
Link: The New Inquiry: Un(der)known Writers: Alberto Savinio thenewinquiry: Operatic Lives: “Isadora Duncan” (1942) In Nice it was raining. Apollo and Diana stood at the curb, covered by black raincoats. When the automobile went by, Diana grabbed the scarf fluttering behind Isadora’s neck with two fingers and held tight. This and nothing more. A moment […]
“The greatest literary figures of Central Europe in the twentieth century (Kafka, Musil, Broch, Gombrowicz, but Freud as well) rebelled (they were very much alone in that rebellion) against the legacy of the preceding century, which in their part of Europe bowed under the particularly heavy weight of Romanticism. They felt that in its vulgar […]
In The New Republic Ruth Franklin has an interesting and damning survey of American novels dealing with terrorists. And though I was gently chided for being too hard on Franklin for her attempt to deny the differences between European and American writing, I just can’t help myself taking issue with some of the premises of […]
Part I – On Best European Fiction 2011 and the Euro-American debate over literary adventurousness The publication of the inaugural Best European Fiction collection by Dalkey Archive Press in 2010 resulted in a bit of American literary defensiveness over claims that European fiction was more adventurous and experimental than its new world counterpart. Zadie Smith’s […]
In the last years of his long life Argentine writer Ernesto Sabato was apparently kept from reading and writing by his doctors and instead devoted himself to painting. Sabato’s literary ties to Central European and Russian fiction are evident enough in his books, but in case you needed further proof …
1954 XI. Tuesday With Ernesto Sabato (an Argentine writer) in the bar Helvetico. Besides writing, Sabato teaches philosophy privately and initiates me into his method. He says Hay que golpear (one must strike). One must tear them away from the reality to which they have become accustomed and cause them to see everything anew. Their […]
Aleksandar Ristovic (1933-1994) is a Serbian poet whose sole book in English, Devil’s Lunch, was translated by Serbian-American poet Charles Simic and published in 1999. At Harriet, the blog of the Poetry Foundation poet Jeffrey McDaniel provides a mouth watering introduction to Ristovic’s work by taking readers through the title poem “Devil’s Lunch.” For more […]
Eastern disillusionment meets western incomprehension On Dorota Masłowska’s play – “A Couple of Poor, Polish-Speaking Romanians” It is hard to be subversive in the 21st century. Writers and artists of all kinds have been aiming in that particular direction for so long now that it seems almost old-fashioned. And if you’re from what is commonly […]
Czech novelist Petra Hůlová (b. 1979) vaulted to fame almost a decade ago with the publication of her debut novel All of This Belongs to Me (Paměť mojí babičce, 2002). Since then she has written five more novels in Czech and in 2009 saw her much acclaimed first novel published by Northwestern University Press in […]
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