REVIEWS 717 before,duringand afterthe Decembristuprising, Kvukhlia deservesto be translated withthevervedisplayed in Young Pushkin. SchoolofLiteratures, Languages and Cultures University ofEdinburgh Peter France Segel, Harold B. The ColumbiaLiterary Historyof EasternEuropeSince 1943. ColumbiaUniversity Press, Ithaca,NY, 2008.xv+ 405pp.Notes.Further Reading.Index.$75.00:£44.00. Similartitles immediately alertthereaderthatthisvolumestandsin a complementary relation to HaroldB. Segel'searlierreference work,TheColumbia Guideto theLiteratures ofEasternEuropeSinceigfä (New York, 2003). Surprisingly , thenatureofthatrelation is nowhere explicated inthepresent volume. WhereasSegel'searlierworkconstituted an encyclopaedia ofEasternEuropean authors, withbriefentries arrangedalphabetically, thepresent volume constructs a narrative history in whichwriters froma vastarrayofliterary traditions are discussed in eleventopically arrangedchapters suchas 'World War II in theLiteratures ofEasternEurope','FleeingtheSystem: Literature and Emigration', 'InternalExile and the Literatureof Escape', 'Writers BehindBars',and 'GlimpsesoftheOtherWorld:AmericaThroughEastern European Eyes'. As in Segel's earlierwork,the sheerrangeof materialis imposing: one has difficulty imagining how a singleauthorcould read and digest somanyhundreds ofliterary works inroughly fifteen different languages. The featis indeedimpressive. That a workofsuchmagnitude willcontainerrors istobe expectedalmost as muchas thepedantictoneofthereviewer pointing themout.Nonetheless, a couple of examplesare glaring.For instance,Segel claims thatMilan Kundera'snovel'TheJoke was followed by one ofKundera'smostpopular works,Smësnê lásky {Laughable Lovesf(p. 108), when in factmost of Smësné lásky was publishedbeforeTheJoke.(The same errorappears in Segel's earlier reference work.)Segel also writesthatwhen Vaclav Havel was in prison he was visitedby his wifeOlga 'and theirson,Ivan' (p. 181).The Havels neverhad a child;Ivan isVaclav's brother. Whilecertain errors are perhaps unavoidablein an undertaking ofthisscope,theseconcernsomeofthemost famouspost-war authorsanywhere in Europeand clearly are notmeremisprints . Thereare also startling omissions, suchas Anna Seghersand Christa Wolf(twoof the mostprominent East Germanwriters), Zofia Nalkowska (whoseMedallions is a fundamental workof Holocaustliterature), and two ofthebestknown poetsoftheregion, Zbigniew Herbert and theNobelprizewinner JaroslavSeifert. (Poetry ingeneralis under-represented.) The absence offurther figures suchas Paul Celan, Emil Cioran and LibuseMonikováis presumably because theywrotelargelyin 'Western'languages although Kundera's Frenchworksare discussed,as are severalby East German authors. To be sure,difficult choiceswereinevitable in a workofthisrange. But Segel offers no criteriato explain the exclusionof such important figures. 7l8 SEER, 88, 4, OCTOBER 2OIO A sense of wilfulness pervades the organizationof chaptersas well. Often,worksdiscussedhave a dubiousrelationto theostensible topic:thus thechapteron theliterary aftermath ofStalin'sdeathcontainsa discussion ofCharter 77(which surely belongsinthechapter on 'The Reform Imperative in EasternEurope');a sub-chapter on Parisas a centreofRomanianemigrationincludesNormanManea , an émigréto theUnitedStates;and almost identical discussions ofCzeslawMiloszoccurintwodifferent chapters (pp.42 and 93).The finalchapter bearstheprovocative title'The Postcolonial LiteraryScene in EasternEuropeSince 1991',butprovides no explication ofwhy 'postcolonial' is an aptparadigmforliterature ofthepost-Communist period - indeed,thetermbarelyappearsin thechapter. Theseidiosyncrasies reflect a lackofclarity intheoverallconception ofthe volume.Segel describes individual writers and textsbutonlyrarely analyses thebroadersocial,political orliterary forces atwork.Historical contextualization is forthe mostpart unsystematic and anecdotal:one mightexpect, forexample,somediscussion oftheemergence oftheSocialistRealismparadigmand oftheparticular waysitwas implemented underdifferent regimes. InsteadSegel simply glossesthedoctrine as a 'straitjacket' (p. 47),whichis obviousenough,and moveson to discussparticular texts. ('SocialistRealism' isnotevenlisted intheindex.)The result isa senseofatomization: thevolume readsmorelikea descriptive assemblageofwriters and textsthana literary history. Simultaneously, however, Segel'schosenstructure imposesa distortingunityon thematerial.Segel's declaredfocusis on 'essentially common responses to external, largely political, stimuli' (p. xi),and thusthedivergent literary and historical backgrounds neverappear.Variedwriters, regions and traditions are reducedto examplesof 'EasternEuropean Literature'. This is especiallyunfortunate since Segel commendably wishesto rescuethese traditions from theobscurity thatCold War habitsofthought have created. Yet thenotionof'EasternEuropeanLiterature', defined bythesharedtraumas ofwarand totalitarianism butwithno anchoring in pre-war contexts, is a Cold War construct. The termhas long blindedWesternreadersto the complexities and history of theliterature of thisregion.There maybe no betteralternative: 'Central' or 'East Central European' have theirown hazards.Butsomereflection on thesimplifications and distortions entailed by 'EasternEuropean' is essential. Addressing precisely thesedifficult issuesof definition andcontextualization wouldhavemadethishistory a moreeffective supplement to Segel'searliertreatment ofthesubject. UCL SSEES Peter Zusi Ericson, EdwardE.,Jrand Klimoff, Alexis.TheSoulandBarbed Wire: AnIntroduction toSolzhenitsyn. ISI Books,Wilmington, DE, 2008. xvi + 289 pp. Notes.Selectbibliography. Index.$28.00 (paperback). Both EdwardE. Ericson Jrand AlexisKlimoff have followed Solzhenitsyn closelythroughout theircareers,and hisworkhas formed thegreater part of theirscholarly output.Althoughthe numberof criticalpublications on ...