Page 103 - Vinkler, Jonatan, Ana Beguš and Marcello Potocco. Eds. 2019. Ideology in the 20th Century: Studies of literary and social discourses and practices. Koper: University of Primorska Press
P. 103
Searching for the Image of the Village in the Swirl of 20th Century Ideological Conflicts 103
teller’s family comes from a city, uninformed and unaffected by local cus-
toms (including the necessity to order bread in the store in advance to be
able to actually buy it). We have the opportunity to see the picture of the
modern village, but supplemented with Hrabal-like humorous situations
and vivid language.
On the whole rural topics were in decline; one of the exceptions find-
ing a wider response due to its television adaptation (in 1997 and 2001)
is Zdivočelá země (1991, 1997), a novel sequence by Jiří Stránský (1931–
2019), which takes place in the border countryside during the occupation,
World War II, post-war and post-coup years. However, Stránský’s work is
criticized for its reversed black-and-white perception and simple narrative
procedures that shift the book rather to popular fiction.
It is only after 2000 that we can find more sophisticated images of
the countryside in Czech literature, but again, mostly historicizing (e.g.
Kateřina Tučková’s (1980) Žítkovské bohyně (2012), or Jozova Hanule
(2001) by Květa Legátová (1919–2012)). The subject also becomes perti-
nent in the cinema, most evidently with the movie adaptations of the nov-
els (Želary (2003) directed by Ondřej Trojan, which is a version of Jozova
Hanule, or Habermannův mlýn (2010) directed by Juraj Herz, where the
countryside has a disturbing Körner-inspired atmosphere, based on Josef
Urban’s (1965) eponymous novel). But the cinema also produces original
scripts on the theme, such as the feature film Divoké včely (2001, direct-
ed by Bohdan Sláma) or Díra u Hanušovic (2014, directed by Miroslav
Krobot).
One of the prominent authors of contemporary Czech prose is Jiří
Hájíček (1967), who in his three-volume novel (Selský baroko (2005), Rybí
krev (2012), and Dešťová hůl (2016)) conceived several variants of views of
a South Bohemian village. The narrator of the novel Selský baroko is Pavel,
a genealogist who makes his living by building family trees, which takes
him back to the 1950s, where the image of post-war forced collectiviza-
tion and the destruction of rural farmers gradually emerges. In the nov-
el Rybí krev, the main character, Hana, returns to her native village, now
half-flooded by a dam that was built in the 1980s to make way for a nucle-
ar power plant. She reunites with her father, brother and friends, search-
ing for the meaning of friendship, cohesion, forgiveness. In Dešťová hůl,
the plot revolves around fraudulent machinations with the village lands,
which gradually come to light, exposing ancient bonds and wrongs.
Characters in the novel come from outside, from the city or even from
abroad, where employment, desire to travel and get to know the world
took them. As Radim Kopáč aptly writes in his review of the Dešťová hůl:
teller’s family comes from a city, uninformed and unaffected by local cus-
toms (including the necessity to order bread in the store in advance to be
able to actually buy it). We have the opportunity to see the picture of the
modern village, but supplemented with Hrabal-like humorous situations
and vivid language.
On the whole rural topics were in decline; one of the exceptions find-
ing a wider response due to its television adaptation (in 1997 and 2001)
is Zdivočelá země (1991, 1997), a novel sequence by Jiří Stránský (1931–
2019), which takes place in the border countryside during the occupation,
World War II, post-war and post-coup years. However, Stránský’s work is
criticized for its reversed black-and-white perception and simple narrative
procedures that shift the book rather to popular fiction.
It is only after 2000 that we can find more sophisticated images of
the countryside in Czech literature, but again, mostly historicizing (e.g.
Kateřina Tučková’s (1980) Žítkovské bohyně (2012), or Jozova Hanule
(2001) by Květa Legátová (1919–2012)). The subject also becomes perti-
nent in the cinema, most evidently with the movie adaptations of the nov-
els (Želary (2003) directed by Ondřej Trojan, which is a version of Jozova
Hanule, or Habermannův mlýn (2010) directed by Juraj Herz, where the
countryside has a disturbing Körner-inspired atmosphere, based on Josef
Urban’s (1965) eponymous novel). But the cinema also produces original
scripts on the theme, such as the feature film Divoké včely (2001, direct-
ed by Bohdan Sláma) or Díra u Hanušovic (2014, directed by Miroslav
Krobot).
One of the prominent authors of contemporary Czech prose is Jiří
Hájíček (1967), who in his three-volume novel (Selský baroko (2005), Rybí
krev (2012), and Dešťová hůl (2016)) conceived several variants of views of
a South Bohemian village. The narrator of the novel Selský baroko is Pavel,
a genealogist who makes his living by building family trees, which takes
him back to the 1950s, where the image of post-war forced collectiviza-
tion and the destruction of rural farmers gradually emerges. In the nov-
el Rybí krev, the main character, Hana, returns to her native village, now
half-flooded by a dam that was built in the 1980s to make way for a nucle-
ar power plant. She reunites with her father, brother and friends, search-
ing for the meaning of friendship, cohesion, forgiveness. In Dešťová hůl,
the plot revolves around fraudulent machinations with the village lands,
which gradually come to light, exposing ancient bonds and wrongs.
Characters in the novel come from outside, from the city or even from
abroad, where employment, desire to travel and get to know the world
took them. As Radim Kopáč aptly writes in his review of the Dešťová hůl:
