"Re-emergence of the Realist Novel in East-Central Europe during Post-Stalinism”, Group session, ICLA Congress 2022, Tbilisi, Georgia
Shortly after the end of WWII, the literary cultures of East-Central Europe were compelled to import the doctrine of socialist realism, which had already been active in the USSR for more than a decade. A malfunctional grafting of a would-be idealizing aesthetics and a formal pattern typical of traditional realism, the socialist realism brought along a new political novel with a limited collection of characters, narrative situations, and denouements, all projected against a overly simplified social background, painted in black and white.