Publisher's Synopsis
This volume, published nineteen years after the "Contributions on the History of Slavic Studies in Non-Slavic Countries" ("Beitragen zur Geschichte der Slawistik in nichtslawischen Landern", Vienna, 1985, Schriften der Balkankommission, Linguistische Abteilung, Bd. 30), is witness to the changing concept of "Slavic Studies" as well as the reforms in methods and interests in regard to the Slavic world in a period in which Europe finds itself in massive transformation. In addition to traditional disciplines such as linguistics, literature and history, areas such as sociology, the fine arts and theatre and other interdisciplinary subjects are also dealt with. Although some of the contributions in the earlier volume have not been continued or have only been partially brought up to date, several countries that were not included are now represented with the first attempt at a synthesis: Greece, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, Lithuanian, Estonia and Rumania. Though more comprehensive than the first volume, the second volume is a torso and not the testament of a finite period or the inventory of a "Museum of Slavic Studies". In its imperfection but ambitiousness, it displays the astonishing vitality of a discipline that doesn't forsake its origins, but incorporates all the humanities and social sciences, not holding any aspect of the history of knowledge and its study as superfluous.
