NEGACE ORIENTALISMU V EXOTICKÉ TVORBĚ JANA HAVLASY
THE NEGATION OF ORIENTALISM IN THE EXOTIC WRITINGS OF JAN HAVLASA

Summary/Abstract: The study deals with prosaic and essayistic writings of Jan Havlasa (1883–1964) issued in 10's and 20's of 20th century which was inspired with his stay in Japan, where Havlasa repeatedly stayed as a diplomat. The author is concerned with the novel Okna do mlhy (1919) and the collection of essays Kvetoucí nopaly (1929). He alerts to the striking negation of the famous conception of orientalism presented by Edward Said. Havlasa doesn't envisage the Orient as the space for an imperialistic grubbing of the West or as an object for scientific researches, but, conversely, he highly appreciates the merits of an oriental man. At first, he managed to reveal the concordant symbiosis of a man with a nature, which he could miss in the Czech and in the European milieu, too. Moreover, according to Havlasa, the barbarian west of the white men, where he ranks himself, might improve only in the case of advancing towards the East. Then we can classify Havlasa among European intellectuals, who essentially went against the exploitation and oppression of other nations, whether in the East or in the West.

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