The Czech Manuscripts is dedicated to one of the most important literary forgeries on the model of Macpherson's Ossianic poetry. The Queen's Court and Green Mountain Manuscripts, discovered in 1817 and 1818, went on to play an outsized role in the Czech National Revival, functioning as founding texts of the national mythology and serving as sacred works in the long period when they were considered genuine. A successful literary forgery tells a lot about what a culture wants and needs at a particular moment. One fascinating aspect of this story is how a successful fake was able to function in an integral way as part of the Czech cultural revival of the nineteenth century, both because it played to expectations and nationalist values and because it met real cultural needs in many ways better than genuine historical literary works and artefacts. Also fascinating is the vainglorious Václav Hanka, a prolific and dedicated forger who was likely the center of the conspiratorial ring that created the manuscripts and who went on as the librarian of the Czech National Museum to alter a number of others. David Cooper analyzes what made the Manuscripts a convincing imitation of their Serbian and Russian models. He looks at how translation shaped their composition and at the benefit ofexamining them as pseudotranslations, and investigates the quasi-religious rituals and commemorative practices that developed around them. The Czech Manuscripts brings the Czech experience into the broader developments of European history.

To survive Totalitarianism and retain their humanity, Czech women writers went underground to write, paint, sculpt, and create supportive communities. This book explores fiction, poetry, and life-sustaining activities of Eva Švankmajerová, “Mother of Czech Surrealism,” and Eda Kriseová, journalist, fiction writer, essayist, and activist who served in President Václav Havel’s first Cabinet, among other Czech women who wrote and engaged in dissent during the years when Czechoslovakia ached under Soviet rule. Women’s Artistic Dissent: Repelling Totalitarianism in pre-1989 Czechoslovakia highlights and unearths the work of women that is often undervalued and unacknowledged. Flanagan and Waisserová carefully detail the variety of ways in which women resisted through literature and ecological activities, shedding new light on the ways in which individuals and communities can retain their humanity even as they resist and repel dictatorial regimes in their countries.

This volume presents regional approaches on the formation and transformation of national literary canons as a practice of nation-building in various cultural traditions (Polish, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Estonian, etc.) from the 19th century to the present times.

Central Europe and the Non-European World in the Long 19th Century explores various ways in which inhabitants of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy perceived and depicted the outside world during the era of European imperialism. Focusing particularly on the Czech Lands, Hungary, and Slovakia, with other nations as comparative examples, this collection shows how Central Europeans viewed other regions and their populations, from the Balkans and the Middle East to Africa, China, and America. Although the societies under Habsburg rule found themselves (with rare exceptions) outside the realm of colonialism, their inhabitants also engaged in colonial projects and benefited from these interactions. Rather than taking one “Central European” approach, the volume draws upon accounts not only by writers and travelers, but by painters, missionaries, and other observers, reflecting the diversity that characterized both the region itself and its views of non-Western cultures.

"The present volume of MSP's Czech Translations Series brings the first scholarly edition in English of the so-called Manuscripts, Czech literary forgeries of the early nineteenth century whose creation and reception represent one of the more remarkable episodes of Romantic forgery. The rich documentation here includes a selection of reviews and polemical articles that the Manuscripts provoked, showing their long term cultural significance and impact, including the central role they played in the development of Czech national consciousness. The annotated translation enables contemporary readers to experience their aesthetic force and perceive the qualities that linked Czech culture to the broad stream of European cultural developments"--

Explores the biographical and textual evidence of Russia's importance in shaping the writer Rainer Maria Rilke's aesthetic perception. During Rilke's two trips to Russia at the turn the century, he made connections with a number of important artists, including Leo Tolstoy and Nikolai Leskov, and the author traces the impact of these meetings and other experiences in Russia upon Rilke's writing. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

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

A haunting tribute to the heroic pioneers who shaped the American Midwest This powerful novel by Willa Cather is considered to be one of her finest works and placed Cather in the forefront of women novelists. It tells the stories of several immigrant families who start new lives in America in rural Nebraska. This powerful tribute to the quiet heroism of those whose struggles and triumphs shaped the American Midwest highlights the role of women pioneers, in particular. Written in the style of a memoir penned by Antonia’s tutor and friend, the book depicts one of the most memorable heroines in American literature, the spirited eldest daughter of a Czech immigrant family, whose calm, quite strength and robust spirit helped her survive the hardships and loneliness of life on the Nebraska prairie. The two form an enduring bond and through his chronicle, we watch Antonia shape the land while dealing with poverty, treachery, and tragedy. “No romantic novel ever written in America...is one half so beautiful as My Ántonia.” -H. L. Mencken Willa Cather (1873–1947) was an American writer best known for her novels of the Plains and for One of Ours, a novel set in World War I, for which she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1923. She was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1943 and received the gold medal for fiction from the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1944, an award given once a decade for an author's total accomplishments. By the time of her death she had written twelve novels, five books of short stories, and a collection of poetry.