Man – City – Universe: The City between Identity and Strangeness in Some Central European Novels of the Second Half of the 20th Century

Tereza Knotová

Abstract


The article deals with two aspects of spatiality given by the theory of the relationship between the microcosm and the macrocosm: the encounter with oneself as a way of forming one’s identity, as well as the encounter with the stranger as a necessity to know the world. The example of several Central European novels of the second half of the 20th century shows that identity shapes home. Strangeness, on the other hand, acts as a moment of melancholy that reshapes the face of the city and reveals the presence of death and infinity.


Keywords


space; city; melancholy; identity; Central European novel

Full Text:

PDF

References


Anderson, Benedict. (2016). Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London–New York: Verso.

Assmann, Jan. (2011). Cultural Memory and Early Civilization. Writing, Remembrance, and Political Imagination. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Bachmann, Ingeborg. (1999). Malina. Teaneck, NJ: Holmes & Meier.

Bogdanović, Bogdan. (2002). Město a démoni. Bratislava: Ivan Štefánik.

Bondy, Egon. (1991). Invalidní sourozenci. Bratislava: Archa.

Cassirer, Ernst. (1965). The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms, Vol. 2: Mythical Thought. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Chwin, Stefan. (2004). Death in Danzig. Orlando, FL: Harcourt.

Derdowska, Joanna. (2011). Kmitavá mozaika: městský prostor a literární dílo. Příbram: Pistorius & Olšanská.

Földényi, László F. (2013). Melancholie: její formy a proměny od starověku po současnost. Praha: Malvern.

Heidegger, Martin. (1962). Being and Time. New York: Harper.

Hrabal, Bohumil. (1993). Too Loud a Solitude. London: Abacus.

Jedličková, Alice. (2010). Zkušenost prostoru. Vyprávění a vizuální paralely. Praha: Academia.

Kliems, Alfrun. (2021). Underground Modernity: Urban Poetics in East-Central Europe, Pre- and Post-1989. Budapest: Central European University Press.

Konwicki, Tadeusz. (1999). A Minor Apocalypse. Normal, IL: Dalkey Archive Press.

Lotman, Jurij Michajlovič. (1977). The Structure of the Artistic Text. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press

Novotný, Jaroslav. (2008). Mezi rozprostraněností a významovou orientací. In: Jaroslav Novotný (ed.), Člověk mezi rozprostraněností a krajinou: studie k rozmanitosti chápání prostoru (pp. 17–38). Praha: Togga.

Patočka, Jan. (2008). Přirozený svět jako filozofický problém. In: Jan Patočka, Ivan Chvatík, Jan Frei (eds.), Fenomenologické spisy. I, Přirozený svět: texty z let 1931–1949 (pp. 127–263). Praha: OIKOYMENH.

Sebald, Wienfried G. (1997). The Emigrants. New York: New Directions.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17951/ff.2023.41.1.87-96
Date of publication: 2023-10-25 14:22:15
Date of submission: 2023-02-28 23:22:24


Statistics


Total abstract view - 129
Downloads (from 2020-06-17) - PDF - 24

Indicators



Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2023 Tereza Knotová

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.