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Exhibition Information
View the Bibliography of the Exhibition in pdf format >> Featuring a selection of new books in Robarts Library from Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, Poland, Russia, Serbia & Montenegro, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Ukraine. Room 8002, Petro Jacyk Resource Centre, Robarts Library For more information phone: 416 978 0588 The idea of this exhibition grew from daily observations by PJRC staff that a great collection of contemporary works of fiction written in vernacular Slavic and East European languages and held by Robarts Library is largely underused. A decision was made to select and display literary works published in Eastern Europe in the hopes of attracting the attention of the University of Toronto community to this segment of our Slavic and East European collection. This exhibition features works of Belarusian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Hungarian, Macedonian, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, and Ukrainian contemporary literature. Most titles are represented in the vernacular language, and only a few – in translation into English, German, or French. The number of displayed titles is different for every language. The quantity and variety of fiction titles in the UofT collection greatly depend on choices of the vendor supplying books to the UofT Library and do not necessarily reflect the volume of fiction publishing in a specific region or country. From a different angle, the number of books on display indicates general availability of recent fiction in a specific language in the UofT collection and does not result from any personal bias of the exhibition planners. The main goal was to bring pleasure reading books from Eastern Europe closer to the reader and not to create any kind of ideologically or politically charged display comparing quantities of books coming from various countries of the region. It was not possible to display books written in all of the Slavic and East European languages due to the lack of contemporary fiction titles in some languages in the UofT collection, which, in turn, results from budgetary constraints and the nature of agreements with suppliers. For this exhibition, only novels and short stories were selected. The first priority was given to new books published between 2000 and 2004. When it was difficult to locate a sufficient number of titles in a specific language, the range of publication years was expanded to include newer editions of earlier fiction works. This exhibition presents a wide array of literary genres: from women’s fiction to science fiction, from satire to detective stories, and more. In title selection, an attempt was made to represent award winners, prominent writers, and new names. Particular emphasis was placed on locating works by new authors since they are more likely to be overlooked by the reader. No discriminating judgement was made about the literary or artistic quality of the selected titles. The main selection criteria were their novelty and publication date. Any book published in Eastern Europe and available today in the UofT Library had an equal opportunity to become part of the exhibition. The main goal is to raise the reader’s awareness of available titles, amplify the reader’s interest in contemporary East European fiction, and facilitate access to it, without advising in favour or against specific books. The ultimate judgement is up to the readers. The exhibition will be open from January 24, 2005 until May 31, 2005. It was prepared by Leszek Czubik and Keren Dali of PJRC, who express their deepest gratitude to Mary Stevens and Wasyl Sydorenko of PJRC for their guidance and assistance at every stage of the exhibition planning and preparation. A special heartfelt thank you goes to Robarts Library Slavic cataloguers, Eva Spevak and Marianna Ovesny, who assisted PJRC continuously, in a very timely manner, with a great deal of interest and enthusiasm. |
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Exhibition of Contemporary Novels and Short Stories from Eastern Europe