'The Dedalus Book of Lithuanian Literature' attempts to reflect the transition of Lithuanian literature since the beginning of the twentieth century, when Lithuania was still an agrarian and colonized country on the margins of Europe, to its present modern and post-modernist phase. Lithuanian literature was suppressed in the nineteenth century by the Russians but by the eve of WW II was flourishing again. A new Russian occupation reversed this and led to a Soviet-style socialist realism in fiction. The last decades of the twentieth century saw the rise of a new generation of writers who dealt with Lithuania's history and the contemporary world. 'The Dedalus Book of Lithuanian Literature' also features the writings of the generation of novelists and short-story writers that came to prominence after the re-establishment of independence in 1990. AUTHOR: Born in 1963 Almantas Samalavicius is a cultural historian, critic and essayist. The author of eleven books and seven collections of essays he is a professor at Vilnius University. He has served as president of PEN Lithuania and is currently its vice president. His books, articles and essays have been widely translated. His most recent book to appear in English is 'Ideas and Structures: Essays in Architectural History'(2011).
