Čím je svět nemocný? Pokusy o diagnózu v románech Radky Denemarkové a Olgy Tokarczukové
What Is the World Ill with? Attempts at Diagnosis in the 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 women writers, Radka Denemarková and Olga Tokarczuk, with a particular focus on their novels Hodiny z olova (2018) and Empuzjon. Horror przyrodoleczniczy (2022). The introduction juxtaposes the literary agendas and goals that both authors set for their novels, as well as the extra-literary ways of communicating with the readers. The introduction is followed by an analysis of the formal characteristics of their novels, which elude clear genre classification. The plot construction of the works corresponds with the subject matter, which acquires 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, she 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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