Stalingrad Pub or Hitler’s? Representation of ideological changes of toponyms in contemporary Czech literature
Stalingrad Pub or Hitler’s? Representation of ideological changes of toponyms in contemporary Czech literature

Summary/Abstract: The 20th century ideologies, together with the transformations of the constitutional andsocial orders of the Central Europe, count among the major topics of contemporaryCzech prose. The concept of collective memory, that preserves these elements of thepast, is being uncovered both on the material and non-material planes. One of the waysof its representation in literary works is the use of toponyms of predominantly commemorativecharacter. Therefore, in a fictional world, the names of places become anessential motif reflecting the ideological influence of the political power of the time.The paper focuses on the place names the contemporary prose works contain and onthe way they are involved in constructing a literary picture of the history of the 20th century.Attention is paid to the artistic representation of the ideologically motivated changesof toponyms and non-standardized toponymy as an element of identity or humordefying political power; furthermore, the particularities of linguistically diverse areas,especially in relation to German and Polish language, are considered. From the methodologicalpoint of view, the study is based, besides others, on the concept of abusedmemory (abus de mémoire) by the French philosopher Paul Ricoeur, which is clearlyevident in the literary motif of the ideological transformations of toponyms.

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