Hunting Cockroaches

A surreal comedy set in Manhattan's Lower East Side focusing on a Polish immigrant couple's difficulties in reconciling their past with their present.

Janusz Glowacki's highly theatrical and often hilarious works concern the immigrant experience of the Eastern European in America, the struggles of the individual in a repressive state, and the manipulations of political and social power. The girls' reform school of Cinders, the Lower East Side tenement of Hunting Cockroaches, and the Norwegian court littered with bodies in Fortinbras Gets Drunk serve as backdrops for Glowacki's tragicomic explorations of the play within the play of contemporary existence.

Publisher Description

This classic farce done in thirty scenes with no chronological sequence concerns a doctor of philosophy who has a wife, a mistress, and a secretary whose beautiful legs make it difficult for him to concentrate when she is taking dictation.

Anna Nasilowska's A History of Polish Literature is a one-volume guide that immerses readers in the rich tapestry of Polish literature and reveals its enduring impact on European identity from the Middle Ages to the late twentieth century. By exploring key themes, writers, and works and grounding her discussion in crucial biographical context, she weaves together the lives of a carefully curated list of Polish writers to paint a vivid literary portrait, elucidating the epochs that these writers shaped. Offering indispensable insights for readers who may be unfamiliar with the world of Polish literature, it is an excellent jumping-off-point for further study and learning.

An annotated world theatre bibliography documenting significant theatre materials published world wide since 1945, plus an index to key names throughout the six volumes of the series.

The Iron Curtain concealed from western eyes a vital group of national and regional writers. Marked by not only geographical proximity but also by the shared experience of communism and its collapse, the countries of Eastern Europe--Poland, Hungary, Albania, Romania, Bulgaria, and the former states of Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and East Germany--share literatures that reveal many common themes when examined together. Compiled by a leading scholar, the guide includes an overview of literary trends in historical context; a listing of some 700 authors by country; and an A-to-Z section of articles on the most influential writers.