Author: Ivo Harák
Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem
Tranlation from Czech by: Borislav Borisov
Published in Slavyanski dialozi, XIII, 2016, 18
Abstract: The article discusses the trilogy of Ladislav Stehlík The Pensive Land. The plot recreates the cultural, natural and spiritual image of the South Bohemian region. The trilogy is considered to be one of the representative works of the socialist literary regionalism that raises questions about the mechanisms employed to construct an adequate cultural memory in a time that undergoes the pressure of the ideological censorship. The author’s efforts to balance the expectations of the official literary criticism with his deep concern for the contemporary spiritual and material destruction are revealed. The work of a writer, who is almost forgotten today, sheds light on the question of the national importance of literary regionalism.
Key words: Ladislav Stehlík, Pensive Land, South Bohemia, literary regionalism