ABSTRACT
The defining characteristic of twentieth century European literature is perhaps its deliberate and fruitful instability. As writers experimented with genres and styles and invented new forms in which to capture their experiences, they helped disintegrate existing cultural values and norms. In this introduction, we discuss how artists and intellectuals created a new, international public sphere and redefined what it meant to be and feel European by forging new transnational connections and forming artistic circles in such cities as Paris, Berlin and Vienna. Technological advances brought drastic changes in the pace of life, and writers have acknowledged and dealt with this quickening pace in various ways. For instance, they questioned the notion of objectivity and, inspired by Nietzsche, Freud and Bergson, they problematised and redefined a variety of heretofore undisputed connections, such as the one between writer and reader. As traditional boundaries and borders disintegrated, the literary stage expanded and reached ever further. Writers from different parts of the world, especially from former colonies, settled all over Europe. The work of these new Europeans has prompted readers and critics to re-examine pre-existing ideas about what makes literature “European”.
