Author: Martin Pilař
University of Ostrava
Translation from Czech by Katerina Tomova
Published in Slavyanski dialozi, VIII, 2016, 17
Abstract: This essay deals with three writers (Helmut König, Ivan Landsmann and Petr Pitucha), who left Czechoslovakia and in their exile prosaic books reflected their life experience in industrial Ostrava from the viewpoint of adult narrators living in West Germany and the Netherlands. They succeeded in overcoming communist images of the so-called „Ostrava dream“ which was imported from Soviet literary dogmata of the Stalin Era. Their books were published in the time when younger generation of artists reinterpreted the Ostrava region which is now very often seen as a place of post-industrial cultural wilderness and extremely inspirational place for alternative cultural activities. With the exception of Ivan Landsmann and his novel Colourful layers (Pestré vrstvy), these Czech exile authors are almost unknown, but their role in changing general Czech understanding of the Ostrava region and its specific features should not be forgotten.
Key words: The Image of Ostrava Region in Literary Texts, Helmut König, Ivan Landsmann, Petr Pitucha