Postcommunism, Postmodernism, and the Global Imagination

by Moraru, Christian

• ISBN13: 9780880336529
• ISBN10: 0880336528
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-09-01
• Publisher: Columbia Univ Pr

Summary

Contributors follow the impact of post-Cold War globalization on Central-East European literatures, cultures, and theoretical-ideological debates, particularly literary and cultural-artistic trends such as experimentalism, the neo-avant-garde, and postmodernism. Essays investigate the new configurations of theme, form, and ideology that emerged in these former communist countries after 1989 and the ways artists, critics, and intellectuals have imagined themselves, their countries, and their world as it globalizes. Contributors combine literary-aesthetic and cultural-historical approaches while remaining sensitive to transnational developments.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. v
Introduction: Imagination without Walls	p. 1
Shifting Paradigms: East European Literatures at the Turn of the Millennium	p. 25
Cosmallogy: Mircea Cărtărescu's Nostalgia- The Body, the City, the World	p. 47
The Screen of the City: Sofia's Transitional Urbanscapes, 1989-2007	p. 71
Facing Globalization: Lithuanian Urbanism between Postcommunism and Postmodernity	p. 101
Shakespeare after Shock Therapy: Neoliberalism and Culture in the Postcommunist Czech Republic	p. 117
Kadare after Communism: Albania, the Balkans, and Europe in the Post-1990 Work of Ismail Kadare	p. 137
Postcommunist Spectacle: Germany, Commodity, Comedy	p. 169
The Anxiety of Freedom: Contemporary Slovenian Literature and the Globalizing/Postmodern World	p. 193
Late Communist and Postcommunist Avant-Garde Aesthetics: Interrogations of Community	p. 211
Global Media and National Value: Postsocialist Negotiations	p. 231
Love Game: East European Athletes and the Culture of Global Celebrity	p. 251
Nomadic Homes, Postmodern Travel, and the Geopolitical Imaginary in the Post-Totalitarian Cultures of Poland and Ukraine	p. 271
Note on Contributors	p. 297
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