Includes brief histories of the oral traditions and literatures of Eastern Europe and biographies of leading figures. Languages include: Albanian; Armenian; Bulgarian; Byelorussian (Belarussian); Croatian; Czech; Estonian; Finnish; Georgian; Greek; Hungarian; Latvian; Lithuanian; Macedonian; Polish; Roumanian; Serbian; Slovak; Slovene; Sorbian (Wendish); Ukrainian; Yiddish.

Long recognized as the outstanding reference on world literature, Benetʼs Readerʼs Encyclopedia is the one against which all others are measured, and is the single-most complete one-volume encyclopedia available for those with a serious interest in the subject. The entries explore all aspects of literature from around the world: biographies of poets and playwrights, novelists and belletrists; plot synopses and character sketches from important works; historical data on literary schools, movements, terms and awards; myths and legends; and more. Completely revised and updated, this fourth edition captures the diversity of todayʼs canon, with greater attention to African-American, Eastern, Middle Eastern, African, South American, Eastern European and womenʼs literature.

This bibliography, first published in 1957, provides citations to North American academic literature on Europe, Central Europe, the Balkans, the Baltic States and the former Soviet Union. Organised by discipline, it covers the arts, humanities, social sciences, life sciences and technology.

Frances Starn is a writer living in Berkeley, California. --Book Jacket.

Disney's animated trailblazing, Dostoyevsky's philosophical neuroses, Hendrix's electric haze, Hitchcock's masterful manipulation, Frida Kahlo's scarifying portraits, Van Gogh's vigorous color, and Virginia Woolf's modern feminism: this multicultural reference tool examines 200 artists, writers, and musicians from around the world. Detailed biographical essays place them in a broad historical context, showing how their luminous achievements influenced and guided contemporary and future generations, shaped the internal and external perceptions of their craft, and met the sensibilities of their audience.

Do the notions of “World Lingua Franca” and “World Literature” now need to be firmly relegated to an imperialist-cum-colonialist past? Or can they be rehabilitated in a practical and equitable way that fully endorses a politics of recognition? For scholars in the field of languages and literatures, this is the central dilemma to be faced in a world that is increasingly globalized. In this book, the possible banes and benefits of globalization are illuminated from many different viewpoints by scholars based in Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, and Oceania. Among their more particular topics of discussion are: language spread, language hegemony, and language conservation; literary canons, literature and identity, and literary anthologies; and the bearing of the new communication technologies on languages and literatures alike. Throughout the book, however, the most frequently explored opposition is between languages or literatures perceived as “major” and others perceived as “minor”, two terms which are sometimes qualitative in connotation, sometimes quantitative, and sometimes both at once, depending on who is using them and with reference to what.

"This encyclopedia explores the history of this complex region over the last two centuries." "Articles are included on countries and regions of Eastern Europe: Albania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and the countries that once made up Yugoslavia. European Russia is also included. These articles are both detailed and concise, offering the reader a brief but comprehensive introduction into a country's history during the last two centuries - a crucial time when Europe was swept by wars and convulsive political change that shaped the present." "The book covers not only the leading figures who shaped the region's political destiny, but also the major artists, writers, and other culturally significant individuals of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Some of these figures are known in the West, while others will be new to many readers." "An extensive map program enriches the text and helps the reader place a topic in geographic context. A bibliography at the end of each entry directs the reader to accessible sources for further reading or research on Eastern European history."--[book jacket]