Kofman, A., ed. (2023). The dictionary of twentieth-century literary movements. Russia, Europe, and America (2 vols.). Moscow: IMLI RAN. (In Russ.)

Abstract

The review concerns an encyclopaedic project that discusses notable 20th-c. literary movements and groups in a vast majority of European and American countries. The first such dictionary in the Russian language, the book has no precedent among international literary studies due to the vastness of material described in utmost detail and conceptually examined. Its articles cover both international and exclusively national literary groupings. Summarizing extensive and often virtually unexplored material, the dictionary offers a new and deeper insight into the artistic life of the past century. Additionally, it draws scholarly attention to the need for a more comprehensive discussion of the contemporary problems of literary encyclopaedias. The reviewer agrees with the editors’ verdict of the futility of archaic and pedantic discussions of terminology and recognizes a nominal character of the laws that the compilers of the book agreed to follow — with these assumptions, he sets out to show the project’s relevant and indisputable achievements.