Written Here, Published There - How Underground Literature Crossed the Iron Curtain (Hardcover)

This book proposes a new perspective on the role of literature in the Cold War and shifts the reader's attention to the gaps in the ostensibly impenetrable Iron Curtain. It uncovers the histories of the widely forgotten phenomenon of tamizdat: "publishing-over-there". Investigating the transfer of nonconformist literature from the "Other Europe" to Western Europe and the United States fosters a new perspective on the seemingly separable literary cultures of Cold War Europe. Based on very extensive, multi-language archival research, Written Here, Published There uses several types of materials: besides literature and political texts, also interviews, audio and video recordings, materials collected at exhibitions, conference papers, and press clippings. This approach allows for the broader look at the whole phenomenon of breaching of the borders by "publishing abroad." Perceiving tamizdat not only as a literary but also as a social phenomenon, the monograph focuses on the individual's ways of participating in this border-crossing activity, the use of secretive channels to guarantee the flow of literature, and its contribution to the creation of a transnational literary community.