Na co choruje świat? O najnowszych powieściach Radki Denemarkovej i Olgi Tokarczuk
What Is the World Taken Ill with? On the Newest Novels of Radka Denemarková and Olga Tokarczuk

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this article is a comparative analysis of the works of two important Central European female writers: Radka Denemarková and Olga Tokarczuk; with a particular focus on their most recent novels: Hodiny z olova (2018) and Empuzjon. Horror przyrodoleczniczy (2022). The introduction juxtaposes literary agendas and goals that the both authors set for their novels as well as extra-literary ways of communicating with the readers. Introduction is followed by an analysis of the formal characteristics of their novels, which escape genre explicitness. The plot construction of the works corresponds with the subject matter, and has the character of a diagnosis that opens up a discussion on the condition of contemporary societies: Czech, Polish, European and even Chinese. In Hodiny z olova, Denemarková juxtaposes contemporary Beijing and Prague, asks about values and human rights in (post)totalitarian societies. Tokarczuk, on the other hand, uses the metaphor of tuberculosis to ask about other human ailments related to identity and co-existence with the natural world.

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