History of the Literary Cultures of East-Central Europe


Book Description

The third volume in the History of the Literary Cultures of East-Central Europe focuses on the making and remaking of those institutional structures that engender and regulate the creation, distribution, and reception of literature. The focus here is not so much on shared institutions but rather on such region-wide analogous institutional processes as the national awakening, the modernist opening, and the communist regimentation, the canonization of texts, and censorship of literature. These processes, which took place in all of the region’s cultures, were often asynchronous and subjected to different local conditions. The volume’s premise is that the national awakening and institutionalization of literature were symbiotically interrelated in East-Central Europe. Each national awakening involves a language renewal, an introduction of the vernacular and its literature in schools and universities, the creation of an infrastructure for the publication of books and journals, clashes with censorship, the founding of national academies, libraries, and theaters, a (re)construction of national folklore, and the writing of histories of the vernacular literature. The four parts of this volume are titled: (1) Publishing and Censorship, (2) Theater as a Literary Institution, (3) Forging Primal Pasts: The Uses of Folk Poetry, and (4) Literary Histories: Itineraries of National Self-images.




Humblepuppy and Other Stories for Telling


Book Description

The stories in this selection come from countries as different as Ireland, Australia and Japan. There are traditional folktales, such as Sohrab and Rustem, a Persian tale retold by Eileen Colwell in her own inimitable style; Humblepuppy, which gives the book its title, is a modern ghost story; Peter's mermaid is an amusing tale about a small boy who finds a baby mermaid. There are funny stories, sad stories, retellings of myths and folktales and also several poems.




The Bookseller


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What Shall I Read?


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Junior Great Books


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The Cumulative Book Index


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A world list of books in the English language.




TWENTY FOLK AND FAIRY TALES FROM THE AMBER ROAD


Book Description

Since ancient times the Amber Road has been a trade route for the transfer of amber from coastal areas of the North Sea and the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean Sea and ports beyond. We invite you to journey along the Amber Road from Russia through Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria and Slovenia to Italy and sample twenty folk tales and stories to be found enroute. This book contains but a sliver of the rich tapestry that is European folklore. Herein you will find perennial favourites like BABA YAGA AND THE LITTLE GIRL WITH THE KIND HEART, THE FROG PRINCESS and THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN. Also included are less well known tales like THE AMBER WIZARD, THE GOLD AXE, MANNIKIN LONG BEARD, THE NIXY, VITAZKO THE VICTORIOUS, THE GLUNKEZER GIANT, BEAUTY AND THE HORNS and THE MYRTLE and many more. The PIED PIPER of HAMELIN is supported by two poems by Robert Browning. The allegorical nature of this story is also brought to light. More than a few of these tales and stories have been collected and translated by Parker Fillmore who between 1907 and 1922 specialised in collecting and publishing eastern European forlklore. Teamed with Czech born illustrator, Jan Matulka, no less than seventeen volumes of Czech, Slovakian, Moravian and Finnish folklore were produced. So, find a comfy chair, sit back and enjoy the twenty authentic stories in this unique volume.