Friday, 29 July 2016

The Magic Realism of the Czech Republic


This blog is taking part in the Magic Realism Bloghop again this year. Last year I blogged about Franz Kafka's Prague. This year I want to talk about my experience as a British writer in the Czech Republic.

On the Magic Realism Books Facebook Group a few months ago someone asked how many of the members had connections with another country than that of their birth and many magic realism writers and readers replied that they had at least a foot in another country and culture. It seems I am not alone in being an expat writer - I do all my writing when I am in my Czech home and none when I am in England.

I suppose it should not come as a surprise that so many magic realists have a dual national or cross-cultural experience. One of the key characteristics of magic realism is that it often deals with a cultural duality, usually (but not exclusively) where an indigenous culture exists alongside a more dominant Western one.

How does that work in the context of Czech magic realism? It is obviously the case with Franz Kafka, who was Jewish in a then German-speaking Prague. But it is also the case with Czech culture too.

For three centuries after the Battle of the White Mountain in 1620's Czech culture was marginalized and oppressed. The ruling Hapsburgs operated a policy of Germanization in the country. Books in the Czech language were burned, and the language banished from schools and public administration. After a while only peasants spoke Czech, as anyone who wanted to get on had to speak German. When the Czech national revival began in the 19th century, nationalist writers looked not to the German-dominated towns and cities, but to the villages and farms of the countryside. Here they found the Czech language, storytelling and folklore still alive. One of the most famous of the folktale collectors was the woman whose portrait appears on the 500 czk note: Bozena Nemcova.

Nemcova's novel Grandmother (published in 1855) is set in one such small Bohemian village and the grandmother in the story is the fount of a lot of country lore and traditional wisdom. The book is considered a classic of Czech literature and was hugely influential on the burgeoning Czech national identity. Of course it has elements of magic realism. And it follows that so too does the Czech identity.

The Czechs are well known as being the most atheist people in Europe. But as I have discussed in previous posts they also have a liking for folktales and magic. The two aspects are not mutually exclusive. The Czech rejection of the Catholic Church is partly a rejection of the Church in its role as a tool of Austrian cultural repression; for example Jesuit Antonin Konias is said to have burnt 30,000 Czech language books. Czech enthusiasm for the Slavic and Celtic water, tree and house spirits is part of national identity.

No wonder as a writer of magic realism I love it here.



OTHER POSTS ON THE MAGIC REALISM BLOG HOP 

This post is part of the Magic Realism Blog Hop. Over twenty blogs are taking part in the hop. Over three days (29th - 31st July 2016) these blogs will be posting about magic realism. Please take the time to click on the links below to visit them and remember that links to new posts will be added over the three days, so do come back to read more.

1. Introduction to the Blog Hop - Magic Realism Books Blog   
2. My Imaginary Autobiography by Leslie Tate  
3. Storytelling, Dreams and Magic by Malcolm Campbell  
4. Czech Magic Realism on Adventures in the Czech Republic  
5. From Magic to Angels by Katerina West  
6. Kathy Bryson's Blog  
7. A Magic-Realist Poem onZoe Brooks Books  
8. Magic is the World and It is Ordinary by Leigh Podgorski  
9. Magical Realism - why do we love magic so much by Rachel Dacus  
10. A Survey of Reasonable Ghosts by Robin Gregory  
11. The Magic in Magic Realism by Lily Iona MacKenzie  
12. We Wizards Who Write Magic by Joel Hirst  
13. Magic Realism & the Holocaust by Helen Maryless Shankman  
14. On Magical Realism by Justin Meckes  
15. Dance Between Worlds by Bianca Gubalke  
16. Mortality and Eternity in Writing by Evie Woolmore  
17. Northern Exposure – all things mystical in the 49th state by Cadell Blackstock  
18. Magic Realism Writers From Around The World by Zoe Brooks  
19. Magic at the Time of Conventions by Stephen Weinstock  
20. El Funcionario Fantasma: a Montage by Joel Seath  
21. Real Magic by Natalia Erehnah  
22. Notes from the Field and a Prompt by Heather Fowler  
23. Magic Realism in Russia by Zoe Brooks  
24. Scott Spotson  
25. When Magic Creates the Ride by Malcom Campbell  
26. Finding Magic in the Real World by Lynne Cantwell  
27. On the Reality of Magic by JG Lucas  

(Cannot add links: Registration/trial expired)

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...