Local and global frames in recent eastern European literatures:Postcommunism, postmodernism, and postcoloniality

Abstract

My article discusses the applicability of three conceptual categories (postcommunism, postmodernism and postcoloniality) to the post-1989 literary field. I argue that a significant portion of post-1989 literature has challenged not only literary categories, but also traditional definitions of national identity, gender and race, blurring boundaries between high and low culture, politics and literature. While not ignoring points of conflict both inside and between the cultures of post-1989 eastern Europe, the multifaceted landscape of the region, punctuated by multicultural and minority discourses, has often been a fertile ground for an intercultural literature that crosses literary and geocultural boundaries.

Keywords:

• postcommunism
• postmodernism
• postcoloniality
• transition
• hybridity
• translingualism

Notes

1. See Cornis-Pope, “Shifting Paradigms” 27.

2. See especially the volume Postcolonialism & Postcomunism published in 2001.

3. See Cornis-Pope, “Narrative Hybridity” 5–13.

4. See also Cornis-Pope and Neubauer 1: 80–81.

5. For an insightful discussion of this and other relevant works, see Moscaliuc in Cornis-Pope and Neubauer 4: 387.