To See Oneself Through the Eyes of Others and Through the Eyes of Books: Perspective in Bohumil Hrabal’s Autobiographical Texts

• Authors: Jan Tlustý

Title variants

PL

Przeglądać się w innych i w książkach: punkt widzenia w prozie autobiograficznej Bohumila Hrabala

• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

This study analyses the use of perspective in the autobiographical trilogy (In-House Weddings, Vita Nuova and Gaps) and the late “journalistic” texts by the Czech writer Bohumil Hrabal. The article examines Hrabal’s play with perspective on several levels: on the narrative level, Hrabal experiments with the narrative voice and focalization, and views himself through the eyes of his wife Elisˇka, who is also the narrator of the whole trilogy; this strategy allows him to gain distance from the “I-perspective” and to touch upon sensitive moments of his life (particularly auto-censorship, his relationship with the Communist authorities, and various fears). Furthermore, Elisˇka’s view clashes with the view of Hrabal as a character in the narrative world, which results in an original autobiographical polyphony; the article presents a detailed scrutiny of these perspectives with regard to time. Drawing from hermeneutics as a way of self-understanding shaped by texts and culture, the analysis of perspectivity will demonstrate that Hrabal also views himself through the eyes of books and cultural images; additionally, the article points to parallels with Hrabal’s other works, particularly Too Loud a Solitude. Finally, Hrabal’s playful use of perspective concerns the question of identity: the textual self that appears in the stream of images manifests itself in constant motion, thus unveiling the non-substantiality and openness of human identity. In this way, Hrabal’s writing about himself approximates the view of self in Eastern philosophies (esp. Buddhism and Taoism − Hrabal’s sources of inspiration) as well as contemporary cognitive approaches to the theory of autobiography (Paul John Eakin).

Keywords

EN

Bohumil Hrabal; autobiography; autofiction; perspective; identity

PL

Bohumil Hrabal; autobiografia; autofikcja; perspektywa; tożsamość

• Publisher: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
• Journal: Prace Filologiczne. Literaturoznawstwo
• Year: 2018
• Issue: 8(11) cz.1
• Pages: 85-98

Dates

published

2019-06-28

Contributors

author

Jan Tlustý

• Uniwersytet Masaryka w Brnie

Identifiers

DOI

10.32798/pflit.57