Comparative Central European Holocaust Studies contains select papers on various topics of culture and literature in Central and East Europe from Canadian and U.S. conferences. Organized by the editor, Steven Tötösy 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 cultural context of the region defined as "Central Europe," contributors to the volume discuss the following topics: comparative cultural studies as a theoretical framework for the study of Central and East European culture(s) (Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek), modernism in Central European literature (Andrea Fábry), Central European Holocaust poetry (Zsuzsanna Ozsváth), gender in Central European literature and film (Anikó 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 of peripherality in contemporary East European culture (Roumiana Deltcheva), and Central European Jewish family history in the film Sunshine (Susan Rubin Suleiman). The volume also includes a bibliography for the study of Central European culture (Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek).