Publisher's Synopsis
Leaving aside such writers of established international esteem as Friedrich Dürrenmatt and Max Frisch, Swiss literature is not well known beyond the frontiers of Switzerland itself. Even those who take a professional scholarly interest in it tend to concentrate on writing in one of the four languages of Switzerland. The papers in this volume were given at a symposium which was specifically designed to transcend narrow linguistic boundaries and to provide an opportunity for a wide-ranging overview of the Swiss literary scene, especially since 1945. Leading Swiss writers and critics, including Manfred Gsteiger, Hugo Loetscher, Doris Jakubec, Iso Camartin and Antonio Stäuble, met together with British specialists - among them J.P. Stern, S.S.B. Taylor, Malcolm Pender, Michael Butler and H.M. Waidson - to examine recent trends in writing in French, German, Italian and Romansh in Switzerland to see how the various traditions do - or do not - interrelate. The result is a fascinating survey of the unity and diversity of Swiss literature which will serve as an illuminating companion to H.M. Waidson's Anthology of Modern Swiss Literature (1984).
