Bohumil Hrabal’s Who I Am, or the Question of Identity in the Very Heart of Europe Cover Image

Kim jestem Bohumila Hrabala, czyli pytanie o tożsamość w samym sercu Europy
Bohumil Hrabal’s Who I Am, or the Question of Identity in the Very Heart of Europe

Author(s): Magdalena Brodacka
Subject(s): Polish Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: Bohumil Hrabal; Who I Am; identity; melancholy; Central Europe; Jaspers

Summary/Abstract: The article Bohumil Hrabal’s “Who I Am,” or the Question of Identity in the Very Heart of Europe, is an attempt to place Hrabal’s work in the autobiographical current of his prose. At the same time, it is a deconstruction of the writer’s biographical legend by renaming and defining the linguistic procedures and metaphors used by the writer. The main subject matter of the article revolves around the problem of melancholy, the causes of which lie in the writer’s experiences and personality, as well as in the external socio-political context characteristic of Central Europe in the second half of the twentieth century. The entire discussion is illuminated by the philosophy of Karl Jaspers.

  • Issue Year: 2/2020
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 1-18
  • Page Count: 18
  • Language: Polish