This monograph, penned by an interdisciplinary team of philologists from the Faculty of Arts of Charles University and their European colleagues, examines European and American literatures from the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, tracing not only the trends common to the whole cultural region but also the differences manifested in particular national literatures. The book is divided into two parts: the first explores the transformation of paradigms in literature and literary criticism; the second offers portraits of individual writers, figures and myths from the period broadly understood as the "epoch of Symbolism". The book attests very clearly to the fact that despite local differences, Euro-American literatures faced a common set of problems that included the crisis of modern culture, the confutation of Positivism, the relativisation of art forms and genres, and the problematisation of the subject.The book makes a contribution to a re-evaluation of this period and to a greater awareness of its significance for self-reflection by and a possible renaissance of modern culture.