Being Poland : a new history of Polish literature and culture since 1918 /

Being Poland features about 60 essays by European and North American Polish studies scholars. Unlike the previous three histories of Polish literature available in English (Manfred Kridl's A Survey of Polish Literature and Culture, 1956; Czesław Miłosz' s The History of Polish Literature, 1969; and Julian Krzyżanowski's A History of Polish Literature, CH, Dec'79), which begin with the medieval period, Being Poland focuses primarily on the modernist and the postmodernist periods in Polish culture. The volume is arranged in four conceptual parts: "Transitions," "Strategies," "Transmissions," and "Genres and Their Discontents." The essays in the first three parts complicate the traditional chronological and typological approach of literary histories by offering diverse and sometimes opposing analytical frameworks for tackling the three major Polish cultural paradigms: Sarmatianism, romanticism, and modernism. The majority of the essays in the fourth part are devoted to standard concerns--particular literary trends, genres, and authors--but the editors extend the volume's cultural scope to include such related domains as film, popular culture, and mass media. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. --Svetlana Vassileva-Karagyozova, University of Kansas