The Language of Reminiscence: Milada Součková Between Czech and English
The Language of Reminiscence: Milada Součková Between Czech and English
Author(s): Zuzana ŘíhováSubject(s): Cultural history, Studies of Literature, Sociolinguistics, Comparative Study of Literature, Czech Literature
Published by: Univerzita Karlova v Praze - Filozofická fakulta, Vydavatelství
Keywords: Czech poetry; Exile; Memory; Modernism; Milada Součková; Josefina Rykrová’s Notebooks; Sešity Josefíny Rykrové
Summary/Abstract: Milada Součková published scholarly texts in English, and, as her manuscripts show, she also used English in her imaginative writing, often for meta-poetically commenting on her own work, for ex ample in Josefina Rykrová’s Notebooks. However, Součková’s artistic self-awareness was significantly tied to the Czech language. This article argues that Czech is the language of memory and recollection in Součková’s work and consistently present in her poetry through the words of childhood. Thus, Czech serves in her work as the language of the past, employed to express nostalgia and the imagi nary, while English is used to convey the present reality. Součková’s bilingual literary practice re veals the complexity of linguistic displacement, in which Czech anchors memory and identity, while English becomes a medium of reflection from a distance.
Journal: Svět literatury
- Issue Year: XXXVI/2026
- Issue No: Special
- Page Range: 57-71
- Page Count: 15
- Language: English
