These superb essays focus on the role that culture and particularly literature has played in keeping the spirit of intellectual independence alive in eastern and central europe exploring a variety of issues from censorship to underground poetry baranczak shows why in societies where people struggle to survive under totalitarian rule art is believed to have the power to make things happen. Stanislaw baranczak a polish writer in exile turns to his colleagues and their plights in poland czechoslovakia hungary and the soviet union to explain why oppressive regimes could not succeed in their attempts to transform the eastern european into homo sovieticusthese superb essays focus on the role that culture and particularly literature has played in keeping the spirit of . Breathing under water and other east european essays by stanislaw baranczak cambridge harvard university press 1990 viii 258 pp 2250 reviewed by gary gildner in his introduction to these twenty nine essays all but three of which are expanded book reviews the author discusses a science fiction story by the. Breathing under water and other east european essays stanislaw baranczak harvard university press 1992 literary criticism 258 pages 0 reviews what has really been happening in eastern europe in the 1980s stanislaw baranczak a polish writer in exile reveals that the answer lies not with the party secretaries but with artists and . Breathing under water and other east european essays item preview remove circle share or embed this item embed embed for wordpresscom hosted blogs and archiveorg item description tags want more advanced embedding details examples and help