Przeglądać się w innych i w książkach: punkt widzenia w prozie autobiograficznej Bohumila Hrabala
Abstrakt
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).
Słowa kluczowe
Bohumil Hrabal; autobiografia; autofikcja; perspektywa; tożsamość
Bibliografia
Hrabal, Bohumil. Krasosmutnění. Praha: ČS, 1979.
Hrabal, Bohumil. Kluby poezie. Praha: Mladá fronta 1981.
Hrabal, Bohumil. Něžný barbar [The Gentle Barbarian]. Praha: Odeon, 1990.
Hrabal, Bohumil. Too Loud a Solitude, trans. Michael Henry Heim. London: Abacus, 1993.
Hrabal, Bohumil. The Little Town Where Time Stood Still, trans. James Naughton. London: Abacus 1995.
Hrabal, Bohumil. SSBH 11, Svatby v domě. Praha: Pražská imaginace, 1995.
Hrabal, Bohumil. SSBH 12, Kdo jsem. Praha: Pražská imaginace, 1995.
Hrabal, Bohumil. SSBH 14, Pojízdná zpovědnice. Praha: Pražská imaginace, 1996.
Hrabal, Bohumil. Total Fears, trans. James Naughton. Prague: Twisted Spoon Press, 1998.
Hrabal, Bohumil. In-House Weddings. trans. Tony Liman. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 2007.
Hrabal, Bohumil. Vita Nuova, trans. Tony Liman. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 2010.
Hrabal, Bohumil. Gaps, trans. Tony Liman. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 2011.
Hrabal, Bohumil. Pirouettes on a Postage Stamp: an Interview Novel with Questions Asked and Answers Recorded by László Szigeti, trans. David Short. Prague: Karolinum Press, 2014.
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Husserl, Edmund. Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology and to a Phenomenological Philosophy. First book, trans. Fred Kerten, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1983.
Ricoeur, Paul. “Hermeneutical Function of Distanciation“. In Paul Ricoeur Hermeneutics and the Human Sciences. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995: 131-144.
Ricoeur, Paul. Oneself as Another. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1992.
Wucherpfennig, Wolf. “Autobiographisches Schreiben und Identitätsarbeit: 10 Thesen”. In Autobiographisches Schreiben in der deutschsprachigen Gegenwartsliteratur: Entwicklungen, Kontexte, Grenzgänge, Band 3, ed. Michael Grote, Beatrice Sandberg, München: Iudicum Verlag, 2009.
Zumr, Josef. “Ideová inspirace Bohumila Hrabala“. In Hrabaliana. Ed. Milan Jankovič, Josef Zumr, 1990: 121–136.
Uniwersytet Masaryka w Brnie Czechy
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