Publication details
Czech Post-Apocalyptic Fiction from the 1980s to the Present
| Authors | |
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| Year of publication | 2022 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | In my paper I deal with Czech post-apocalyptic literature. Post-apocalyptic texts use a close connection between the reality of the current world and dystopian fiction, and at the same time emphasize the extrapolation of aspects of the current state of the world. The author of post-apocalyptic literature presents the reader with literary speculation describing a hypothetical society, which is often not very different from our society (in the current world) and which found itself in the period after the ultimate destabilizing catastrophe. After a catastrophe that sets a new order of things and fundamentally divides human history into "before" and "after". In addition, the disaster takes place in the future (in relation to the time of the work). The fictional after-world captured in post-apocalyptic fiction is often a projection of the concerns of its author. Cataclysm in the form of an apocalypse (in the sense of an eschaton) is the basic tool of the authors of this genre and also allows to capture the state of society, which often returns to its natural state, and thus further development can be either utopian or dystopian. The task of the reader of this genre is then to compare the fictional world with the current world and find not only specific differences, but also to reveal the causes of these changes in the current world. The literary vision of the future is one of the important manifestations of assumptions, beliefs and expectations that we apply in the real world in the organization of our attitudes and actions. Individual works of post-apocalyptic literature force us to ask questions about the current state of our society and environment, the aim of my dissertation is to describe how it happens. In my paper I will present an analysis of specific works of Czech literature with a focus on diachrony. I will also focus on the reflection of Czech history and aspects of Czech society in literary works. Selected works cover the period of the 1980s – 2020s. These are the analyzed Czech post-apocalyptic novels: “Maso” (Meat) by Martin Harníček (1981), “Nepovídka” (The Not-Short Story) by Egon Bondy (1994), “Tanec trosečníků” (Dance of the Castaways) by Iva Procházková (2006), “Jezero” (Lake) by Bianca Bellová (2016), „Surový tvar“ (Raw Shape) by Lukáš Palán (2021). I will focus on their warning (preventing) function and depiction of Czech society, culture and history. |
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