Politics, sex and eroticism – towards the fictional picture of “normalization” in Jaroslav Čejka’s novel Most přes řeku zapomnění

• Authors: Petr Hrtánek

Title variants

PL

Politika, sex a erotika – k obrazu „normalizace“ v románu Jaroslava Čejky Most přes řeku zapomnění

• Languages of publication: CS

Abstracts

PL

Novels with the intention to create a comprehensive and recapitulative “chronicle” picture of Czech society in contemporary history present one of the productive thematic tendencies in Czech fiction. Their plots are usually based on confrontations between political events and private stories. In dramatic clashes between “big” and “small” histories, sex and eroticism come to play an important role. They are also essential elements in the novel Most přes řeku zapomnění (The Bridge over the River of Oblivion) (2015) by Jaroslav Čejka. The story tracks the life of the protagonist (and that of his brother) over the course of several decades and shows how numerous love affairs and erotic escapades frame his political career. The present analytical essay focuses on the erotic motifs as realisation of the erotic mode in Čejka’s fictional picture of the “normalization” period during the communist era.

EN

Novels with the intention to create a comprehensive and recapitulative “chronicle” picture of Czech society in contemporary history present one of the productive thematic tendencies in Czech fiction. Their plots are usually based on confrontations between political events and private stories. In dramatic clashes between “big” and “small” histories, sex and eroticism come to play an important role. They are also essential elements in the novel Most přes řeku zapomnění (The Bridge over the River of Oblivion) (2015) by Jaroslav Čejka. The story tracks the life of the protagonist (and that of his brother) over the course of several decades and shows how numerous love affairs and erotic escapades frame his political career. The present analytical essay focuses on the erotic motifs as realisation of the erotic mode in Čejka’s fictional picture of the “normalization” period during the communist era.

Keywords

PL

contemporary Czech fiction; picture of communism; Jaroslav Čejka; novel; erotic motifs; erotic mode

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Opolski
• Journal: Studia et Documenta Slavica
• Year: 2019
• Volume: 9
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 7-15

Dates

published

2020-11-19

Contributors

author

Petr Hrtánek