Socialist Cultures East and West A Post-Cold War Reassessment

Much of the Western academic establishment believes that the cultural productions of the Soviet Union and other communist countries were so ideologically skewed as to make them worthless as literature. Juraga (formerly English and comparative literature, U. of Arkansas at Fayetteville) and Booker (English, U. of Arkansas) suggest that this view is, in itself, ideologically skewed and an example of Western propaganda. They present eight essays that attempt a historical recovery of the legacy of socialist culture in both the Eastern Bloc countries and in the West. Among the topics explored are the similarities between African novels and works of Soviet socialist realism, comparisons of Soviet and American musical comedies, the influence of Bertoldt Brecht on the works of British socialist filmmaker Ken Loach, and a critical review of the scholarship of the 1990s about the American Left. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.