Comparative Central European Holocaust Studies contains select papers on various topics of culture and literature in Central and EastEurope from Canadian and U.S. conferences. Organized by the editor, Steven Toetoesy de Zepetnek, the work presented in this volume is based on 1) the notion of the existence and the describability and analysis of a culture (including history, literature, society, and the arts) specific of/to the region designated as Central Europe, 2) the relevance of a field designated as Central European Holocaust studies, and 3) the relevance, in the study of culture, of the comparative and contextual approach designated as comparative cultural studies. Based on the (contested) notion of the existence of a specific culturalcontext of the region defined as "Central Europe," contributors tothe volume discuss the following topics: comparative cultural studies as a theoretical framework forthe study of Central and East European culture(s) (Steven Toetoesy de Zepetnek),modernism in Central European literature (Andrea Fabry), Central EuropeanHolocaust poetry (Zsuzsanna Ozsvath), gender in Central European literature andfilm (Aniko Imre), Austroslovakism in the work of Slovak writer Anton Hykisch(Peter Petro), Kundera and the identity of Central Europe (Hana Pichova),public intellectuals in Central Europe after 1989 (Katherine Arens),contemporary Austrian and Hungarian cinema (Catherine Portuges), the notion ofperipherality in contemporary East European culture (Roumiana Deltcheva), andCentral European Jewish family history in the film Sunshine (Susan RubinSuleiman). The volume also includes a bibliography for the study of Central Europeanculture (Steven Toetoesy de Zepetnek).
Louise O. Vasvari taught at the State University of New York Stony Brook where she is professor emerita. She has also taught at the universities of California Berkeley and Davis, Eotvos Lorand, Central European, Connecticut, and currently teaches at New York University. Her recent book publications include The Heterotextual Body of the ""Mora Morilla"" (1999), Companion to the ""Libro de Buen Amor"" (with Louise Haywood (2004), and Imre Kertesz and Holocaust Literature (with Steven Totosy de Zepetnek, 2005). Steven Totosy de Zepetnek teaches media and communication studies at the University of Halle-Wittenberg and literature and (comparative) cultural studies at National Sun Yat-sen University. Totosy de Zepetnek is editor of CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture (ISSN 1481-4373) and series editor of the Purdue University Press monograph series of Books in Comparative Cultural Studies http://www.thepress.purdue.edu/comparativeculturalstudies.html>.
