REVIEWS 751 Grotowski.Lisa Di Bartolomeo arguesthat in his adaptation of Mickiewicz's PanTadeusz Wajdarecreatesremarkablythe writer'ssensibility,particularlyin his evocation of nature and his treatment of the concepts of nationhood and exile. Tadeusz Lubelski, on the other hand, writes about Wajda's selffictionalization , focusing on three examples, including Pan Tadeusz.An extremely ambitious form of inter-textuality and adaptation is covered by Tomasz Klys, who looks at the television series 'Asthe yearspass, as the days pass'. This is based on a play staged two years earlier,using the same actors, which in turn was based on nine literaryworks by several Polish Modernist writers,makingit well and trulyinter-textual. Quite a number of the contributorshere focus on the narrativecontent of the films,ratherthan makingformalanalyses.Izabela Kalinowskais amongst the minority who takes a refreshingly cinematic approach. Kalinowska discusses camera movement, the concept of the gaze and looking or being looked at. Kalinowska also investigates the meanings of home and exile in Wajda'sfilms, an idea which is continued in Michael Stevenson's contention that 'Home remains distant, a Polish dream almost mythically unattainable' (p. 79). Maureen Turim discussesthe forms of the ManofMarbleand Man of Iron,and poses the question: 'Can the pair of filmsfocus their deconstructive energieson the workof images as illusions,and stillhold to the cleansingvalue of new image production and reception?' (p. I02). The most personal contribution comes from Bjorn Sorenssen, who recalls his experience of watching Man ofMarblein Nowa Huta in I977. He discussesthe style of the film in terms of documentary,in a way which differsfrom, yet complements, Turim'schapter. This book worksbestwhen readin parts,ratherthan from cover to cover in order, but however it is approached it has a great deal to offer anyone with even a passinginterestin Wajda. School ofSlavonic andEastEuropean Studies MILENA MICHALSKI University College London Hammond, Andrew (ed.). TheBalkansandthe West.Constructing theEuropean Other,1945-2003. Ashgate, Aldershot and Burlington, VT, 2004. xxiii + 236 pp. Notes. Bibliography.Index. ?45.00. DESPITE the European Union's enlargement, European identities are still largely defined through national and regional discourses rather through collective, 'continental' values. Critically informed examinations of the cultural-symbolic and geopolitical parameters of historically determined regionsarethereforeofparamountimportance.The collection of essaysunder consideration focuses attention upon one of Europe's historically and politicallycontroversialareasand undertakesthe dauntingtaskof 'locat[ing], investigat[ing] and challeng[ing] the manner in which the Balkans and the Westhave constructedthemselvessince I945' (backcover). Militaryconflictsin formerYugoslaviain the I990S fuelleda new interestin what has ironicallybeen termed 'Europe'swild east'. This interestmanifested itselfinjournalism and travelwritingas well as in a number of criticalstudies 752 SEER, 83, 4, 2005 which addressed significant aspects of the Balkans'ideological construction and the complex processesresultingfrom the region'slove/hate relationships with the former 'greatpowers' and their latter-daysuccessors.The volume's Introductionand most of the essaysincluded in it buildupon some of the ideas and explore the implications of the most influential of those studies, Maria Todorova's Imagining theBalkans(New York and Oxford, 1997). Todorova's seminal book critically engages with select areas of postcolonial theory in order to historicizethe imaginative engendering of the Balkans,alert readers to blind spotswithinWesternrepresentationsof the region and drawattention to the complexity of Balkan self-images. Most contributors to the volume continue this tendency and their skillin identifying relevant critical insights within the postcolonial context and adapting them to the ambiguous terrain of the Balkans is among the collection's strong points. The editor likewise deservespraisefor endeavouringto sustaina dialogue between 'Western'and 'Balkan'voices throughoutthe volume. However, despite Hammond's good intentions and most contributors' competence and critical acumen, the book presents a number of problems that are, to my mind, also characteristic of other works on South-Eastern Europeproduced by academicswho are eitherworkingwithin the Britishand North American contexts or are heavily influenced by them. Thus the 'West' of the title is largelyAnglo-American in characterand few contributorsreferto any of the other cultures that are usually assumed to comprise 'Western civilization'.This tendsto circumscribethe scope of analysis.Besides,with the significantexception of Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers,most authorsrely on theoretical texts produced within le mondeanglophone and do not take into account studies of the Balkansproduced in other national and/or regional contexts. Curiously, no attempt is made in the Introduction...