Opening on the premise of the anachronism and atemporality of its subjects, Eastern Europe and literature, Anita Starosta's Form and Instability: Eastern Europe, Literature, Postimperial Difference sets the two into collision. Starosta writes: “[T]his book has a twofold commitment: to Eastern Europe on the one hand and to literature on the other” (4). To the degree that there is a discernible methodological difference between the book's sections, it might be divided into the theoretical frame and then unexpected close readings of mostly modernist Polish literature. “Part One: Frames of Intelligibility” seems primarily concerned with the post–Berlin Wall moment and the post-Soviet (re)construction of Eastern Europe; “Part Two: Conditions of Legibility” explores texts that are always, according to the central thesis, one step ahead of limiting interpretation. The hybrid study that results is startling, reads at times as a parable on the difficulty of publishing on “minor” literatures, provokes more questions...

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