Crossroads of Imagination by Carleton Bulkin

Crossroads of Imagination by Carleton Bulkin

The first anthology of early Czech fantastic writing in translation.

Crossroads of Imagination is a rare English-language study of modern science fiction’s precursors beyond the U.S. and Britain. Many translated for the first time, these thirty texts reflect a rich Euro-Atlantic tradition from the Romantic age to World War II. Authors include Jakub Arbes, Karel Čapek, Jiří Karásek ze Lvovic, Ladislav Klíma, Jiří Mordechai Langer, Jan Neruda, Emilie Procházková, Jan Weiss, and Julius Zeyer. The anthology highlights women’s, Jewish, and queer voices.

Prefaces to each selection uncover how new ideas and technologies shaped the European fantastic—positivism, mistrust of elites, pacifism, spiritism, and xenophobia, alongside expansions in communications, transportation, electrification, and technical education. Comparative essays and annotations look beyond “major” literatures and emphasize those of East-Central Europe. Archival images enliven this collection. General and genre readers alike will discover new stories and authors, as well as a fantastic tradition shared across Europe and North America before the advent of modern science fiction.

Carleton Bulkin is a scholar of Slavic languages and literatures and a translator of Czech works, including Hidden History by Otokar Brezina, A False Dawn by Ilona Lacková, The Sufferings of Prince Sternenhoch by Ladislav Klíma, and Marketa Lazarová by Vladislav Vancura. Melvyn Clarke is a translator of Czech.