Author: Petra James
Paris-Sorbonne University
Translated from French by Sonya Aleksandrova
Published in: Slavyanski dialozi, VII, 2010, 10-11
Abstract: Using the late texts of Bohumil Hrabal, this paper offers a study of the transformation process of the Czech society that has been going on since 1989. It focuses on the literary representation of this period and the misunderstandings that can occur around an author and his works. In order to do so, one has to understand the complex relationship between the authorized and the alternative cultural space in Czechoslovakia before 1989 and the way the official publishing strategies can modify an image of writer’s works in a totalitarian society.