This work is a collection of papers in comparative cultural studies, rather than the single-culture approach, applied in the study of Central European culture. It proposes that a Central European culture, as controversial and debated as the notion may be, exists.
This volume contains selected papers of conferences organized by the editor, Steven Totosy, in 1999 and 2000 in Canada and the US on various topics of culture and literature in Central and East Europe. Based on the (contested) notion of the existence of a specific cultural context of the region defined as "Central Europe," contributors to the volume discuss comparative cultural studies as a theoretical framework (Steven Totosy), modernism in Central European literature (Andrea Fabry), Central European Holocaust poetry (Zsuzsanna Ozsvath), gender in Central European literature and film (Aniko Imre), Austroslovakism in the work of Slovak writer Anton Hykisch (Peter Petro), Kundera and the identity of Central Europe (Hana Pichova), public intellectuals in Central Europe after 1989 (Katherine Arens), contemporary Austrian and Hungarian cinema (Catherine Portuges), the notion of peripherality in contemporary East European culture (Roumiana Deltcheva), and Central European Jewish family history in the film Sunshine (Susan Rubin Suleiman). The volume includes a bibliography for the study of Central European Culture biographical abstracts of contributors, and an index.
