From the ICC library

Towards Xenopolis – Krzysztof Czyżewski

How to overcome a paralysis of mutual prejudice and distrust in a painfully divided community? Why does the weak centre strengthen its borders and put up new fences? What does the “borderland” mean today, and which questions should we avoid there? Finally, what does it mean to “kill a bridge” and why “doomed are those who leave and never return”?

Slovak complex. Essays – Rudolf Chmel

A conversation about the past and the present, especially when concerning what is suppressed and has been displaced, purifies and can help to banish complexes. It certainly encourages to confront them. A brilliant essayist and ironist who lacks nothing of academic precision, Rudolf Chmel persistently confronts the national complex of the Slovaks.

Czechia. User manual – Jiří Gruša

In the late 1990s, the Munich publishing house Piper, specialising, among other things, in guidebooks, invited the well-known Czech writer Jiří Gruša to write a guidebook to Czechia. But Piper guidebooks are unlike other publications of this type - they are always authored by well-known writers and they resemble historical and literary essays about countries or cities rather than “utilitarian” Baedekers.

Why Is Romania Different? – Lucian Boia

Romania is a country which has undergone a complicated and paradoxical transformation: from one of the harshest communist regimes to a democratic member state...

Budapest 1900 – John Lukacs

Budapest is one of the most wonderful cities of Central Europe. The paradox of its career is that a mere 150 years ago Buda and Pest... Budapest is one of the most wonderful cities of Central Europe. The paradox of its career is that a mere 150 years ago Buda and Pest, situated on the banks of the Danube, were hardly visible on the map of the European civilisation. Around 1900, the Hungarian capital becomes the sixth largest city of the continent and a major industrial centre in the world! Budapest begins to play the role both of a national capital and a cosmopolitan metropolis.

A Lesson in Central Europe – Csaba G. Kiss

A selection of essays by Prof. Csaba G. Kiss published over the past 15 years in Poland and Hungary.  A selection of essays by Prof. Csaba G. Kiss published over the past 15 years in Poland and Hungary. An outstanding expert in Central European issues, the author is a culture historian, political scientist and historian of literature, conducting comparative research on literature in Central Europe, as well as on myths and national emblems in literature. The year 2000 saw the publication of a Polish edition of his Polish Journal (1980-1982). This publication opens the ICC's new series entitled The Central European Library.

About inspiration – Władysław Stróżewski

Let us start with focusing our attention on that which is obvious, but very important for our further considerations: the root-word of inspiration comes from the Latin  spiritus , meaning spirit, breath, and also breeze.  Inspiratio , in purely philological translation, means breathing, breath, infusing of something into something else, infusing of spirit or what is spiritual into the thing that is not spiritual in its essence; further: animation of what is inanimate (if only, after Plato, we accept the strict connection between spirit and life), and, finally, the stimulating of something to action that is in a state of expectation or passiveness, inertia or sleep.  Inspiratio  may also mean inspiration or enlightenment.

On democracy, memory and Central Europe – Claudio Magris

This anthology of essays by Claudio Magris will reveal to Polish readers a new face of the Italian author: not only an eminent writer and historian of literature, but also an intellectual, journalist and citizen passionately interested in the condition of the community, our modern polis, regardless of whether we define it as our city, our country, or our Europe.

The Shape
of the Figure the Space
of the Myth – Monika Rydiger

To endow statues and figures with the semblance of life has probably been the strongest desire of sculptors from Phidias, through Michelangelo, to Rodin. The shape, posture, gesture, and mimicry of the figures sculpted were to faithfully reecho, reproduce the image of man; they were to serve well-nigh as a mirror image, in accordance with the accepted iconographic models, canons, and stereotypical images.

Towards Xenopolis – Krzysztof Czyżewski

How to overcome a paralysis of mutual prejudice and distrust in a painfully divided community? Why does the weak centre strengthen its borders and put up new fences? What does the “borderland” mean today, and which questions should we avoid there? Finally, what does it mean to “kill a bridge” and why “doomed are those who leave and never return”? The most comprehensive selection of essays by Krzysztof Czyżewski – locates Central Europe in the very centre of the most vital questions and problems today: the crisis of communality, the growing divisions, and increasingly hostile cultural wars.

Nutmeg, Lemon and Turmeric - Miljenko Jergović

“Nutmeg, Lemon, and Turmeric. Observations from Zagreb” is the first Polish collection of essays by one of the greatest Croatian writers, brought together by an acclaimed translator Magdalena Petryńska specially for the Polish readers. Starting with the particulars – exhibitions, books, and photographs – Jergović records his reflections on issues that are of personal interest to him, as well as crucial for the understanding of contemporary world – identity, his life in two cultures, a sense of belonging, alienation, emigration. His writings are always uncompromisingly honest.

Mitteleuropa Revisited – Emil Brix and Erhard Busek

There are two main narratives on Central Europe. To some, Central Europe is a success story of the recent decades, with peaceful political transition and integration with Western European economic structures. To others, it still represents a divided and partly marginalised region, a peripheral buffer zone where political stability can only be sustained at the cost of national populism. Why, then would the future of our continent depend today on this part of Europe?