Underneath the Bunker is a journal dedicated to obscure European culture, founded by the critic Georgy Riecke. It was launched online in 2004, since when it has published over a hundred articles on a variety of subjects, from the tombs at Khum Tash to the latest novels by the Norwegian firebrand Edmund Ek.
Underneath the Bunker is famous for the 2005 list ‘The Greatest European Novels by Contemporary Writers‘, compiled by Georgy Riecke and featuring full-length reviews by such critics as Heidi Kohlenberg, Lucien Ropes and Jinpes Terenk. The journal has also received contributions from the art historian D H Laven, the poet Brszny Derydaripov and the experimental writer Jean-Pierre Sertin (co-founder of Intercutting). In 2013, the site began to publish, in instalments, Georgy Riecke’s moving memoir Conversations with Speyer.
In August 2010 the original site closed and was replaced by this blog. All content from the old site will eventually be re-edited and re-published on this site. All articles can be found by clicking on the menus above, or browsing through the monthly archives.
Since 2008 the journal has been supplemented by Georgy Riecke’s blog.
What people have said about Underneath the Bunker:
“Like Lem’s ‘A Perfect Vacuum’, this web journal focuses on experimental literature, mostly of the Eastern European variety. Highly recommended.” (Waggish, 2006)
“There is more, as you will soon discover, to this site than immediately meets the eye. My only criticism is that it is time-consuming to read. But somebody, or somebodies, must have devoted a staggering amount of time to creating it…. I am particularly fond of Bo Bjo’s ‘Quite Smelly One Morning’. Also, there are many pearls of wisdom: ‘Beauty is so dazzling; it shimmers like a thousand shards of glass on a Sunday morning shopping street.’ “ (Grumpy Old Bookman, 2006)
‘I don’t get it’ (Anonymi, 2003-present)
Further reading:
Contact the editor of this journal at: georgyriecke@underneaththebunker.com
