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It is 1989. Across Central Europe, socalism is crumbling, and robber capitalism is being born. Rivers of Babylon tells this story of a Central Europe, where criminals, intellectuals and secret policemen have infiltrated a new democracy, through the eyes of Racz, sociopathic gangster and idiot of genius. Slovak readers acknowledge Peter Pist'anek as their most flamboyant and fearless writer, stripping the nation of its myths and false self-esteem.
*Winner of the European Union Prize for Literature. There is a liveliness and effervescence to Jana Benová’s prose that is magnetic. Whether addressing the loneliness of relationships or the effectiveness of rat poison, her voice and observations call to mind the verve and sophistication of Renata Adler or Jenny Offill, while remaining utterly singular. Seeing People Off follows Elza and Ian, a young couple living in a humongous apartment complex outside Bratislava where the walls play music and talk, and time is immaterial. Drawing on her memories, everyday interactions, observations of post-socialist realities, and Elza’s attraction to actor, Kalisto Tanzi, Seeing People Off is a kaleidoscopic, poetic, and deeply funny portrait of a relationship.
"An elegant, postmodern fairy tale." —Jacob Hoefer, Bookseller, Labyrinth Books Away! Away! — a new novel from Jana Beňová, winner of the European Union Prize for Literature! Sometimes running away is the bravest option. Or, so believes Rosa, who ditches her husband and home and takes off on the road. Along the way, she encounters the owner of a puppet theater who’s on a mission to conquer the world with his performance of The Snow Queen. Which character from this old fairy tale will Rosa identify with? With Gerda, searching fruitlessly for her lost love? With Kai, who flees home and his beloved one day without a word? Or with the Snow Queen, who seems to stand aloof above it all? With magnetic, sparkling prose, Beňová delivers a lively mosaic that ruminates on human relationships, our greatest fears and desires.
Why the art historian's craft is a uniquely melancholy art Melancholy is not only about sadness, despair, and loss. As Renaissance artists and philosophers acknowledged long ago, it can engender a certain kind of creativity born from a deep awareness of the mutability of life and the inevitable cycle of birth and death. Drawing on psychoanalysis, philosophy, and the intellectual history of the history of art, The Melancholy Art explores the unique connections between melancholy and the art historian's craft. Though the objects art historians study are materially present in our world, the worlds from which they come are forever lost to time. In this eloquent and inspiring book, Michael Ann Ho...
Fiction. Women's Studies. Translated from the Slovak by Julia and Peter Sherwood. ILONA: MY LIFE WITH THE BARD is a fictionalized biography of Ilona Nováková (1856- 1932), wife of Pavol Országh Hviezdoslav (1849-1921), one of Slovakia's most revered poets. By reconstructing the minutiae of Ilona's everyday domestic routines and envisioning her thought processes, Jana Juráňová paints a vivid and subtly ironic portrait of a woman who spent her life in the shadow of her husband. Juráňová debunks the myth of the great artist, showing instead a vain and self-centred man, unwilling to take criticism and oblivious of his wife's needs. Wittily recreating or imagining Hviezdoslav's real-life...
Though Into the Spotlight is drawn from the work of writers from one of Europe's smallest countries, this source reveals itself to be something like a magic lamp out of which comes a multitude of subjects, themes, and styles well out of proportion to its size. Like the best writers, this anthology brilliantly balances the specific and the universal. There are stories that could have taken place anywhere-of love and hate, beauty and ugliness, illness and music-stories distinctly and intriguingly Slovak-of a devout Slovak's imprisonment in the Russian Gulag, the rough and tumble world of the country's Roma-stories from other countries and continents, and stories that seem to come from other worlds entirely-of real or imaginary doubles and surreal nocturnal circuses. -Michael Stein, Literalab, editor at BODY
The Dedalus Book of Slovak Literature offers a wide-ranging selection of fiction from the end of the nineteenth century until the present day, including work by Slovak's classic and most important contemporary authors such as Rudolf Sloboda, Dominik Tatarka, Opavel Vilikovsky, Monika Kompanikova and Balla. This is the most important selection of Slovak fiction to have appeared in English and will be essential reading for anyone wanting to gain an idea of Slovak Literature.
Fredric Jameson, a leading voice on the subject of postmodernism, assembles his most powerful writings on the culture of late capitalism in this essential volume. Classic insights on pastiche, nostalgia, and architecture stand alongside essays on the status of history, theory, Marxism, and the subject in an age propelled by finance capital and endless spectacle. Surveying the debates that blazed up around his earlier essays, Jameson responds to critics and maps out the theoretical positions of postmodernism’s prominent friends and foes.
For more than a decade literary criticism has been thought to be in a post-theory age. Despite this, the work of thinkers such as Derrida, Deleuze and Foucault and new writers such as Agamben and Ranciere continue to be central to literary studies. Literary Criticism in the 21st Century explores the explosion of new theoretical approaches that has seen a renaissance in theory and its importance in the institutional settings of the humanities today. Literary Criticism in the 21st Century covers such issues as: The institutional history of theory in the academy The case against theory, from the 1970s to today Critical reading, theory and the wider world Keystone works in contemporary theory New directions and theory's many futures Written with an engagingly personal and accessible approach that brings theory vividly to life, this is a passionate defence of theory and its continuing relevance in the 21st century.
This volume contains surveys of the main issues in philosophical aesthetics, as discussed by thinkers from ancient Greece to modern times. It is written by members of the Open University and the intention throughout is to make the issues intelligible and interesting to as wide an audience as possible, including those readers with a general interest in the arts as well as more advanced students. The volume begins with questions about the nature of art and beauty. Are there any limitations to what may count as a work of art? Are imitations and forgeries really less valuable than original works? This is followed by discussions of aesthetic experience, truth and the 'imitation of nature' in works of art. In later chapters the emphasis is on the value and evaluation of art. Should art exist for the good of society? What justification is there for censorship in the case of pornography? The final chapters deal with Marxist theories of art, and with structuralist and post-structuralist views in recent continental writings.