Pojetí identity střední Evropy u Jáchyma Topola
| Title in English | The Concept of Central European Identity in the Works of Jáchym Topol |
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| Year of publication | 2025 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | The paper addresses the question of Central European identity in the prose of contemporary novelist Jáchym Topol. From his debut novel Sister (1994), Topol has explored the historical traumas of Central and Eastern Europe, a theme he continues to develop throughout his oeuvre, most recently in A Sensitive Person (2017). Topol approaches the issue of identity primarily through a hyperbolized West–East dichotomy, which in his prose generates tension between liberalism and a totalitarian past. A recurring motif is the search for the boundary beyond which the demonized eastern space begins. Topol frames the question of self-identification for the 21st-century European as a spiritual dilemma, the resolution of which he locates in transcendental detachment from the pragmatic world. This perspective may serve as a key to interpreting the clash between the fantastic and realistic layers that characterize Topol’s fictional universes. The paper examines how the author’s reflection on themes of self-determination and the confrontation with historical trauma evolves within shifting political and cultural contexts, and how this element is interrelated with other dimensions of Topol’s prose. |
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