Hogyan váljuk szocialista realistává
How to become a social realist
Rewriting One’s Own Work
Author(s): Petr ŠámalSubject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Czech Literature
Published by: Korunk Baráti Társaság
Keywords: censorship; literary norms; ambiguity; body; sexuality; journalism; historical novel
Summary/Abstract: Many Czech writers whose first books were published during the First Republic (1918–38) revised those considerably for re-edition after the Communist takeover in 1948. Using a vast range of examples this paper track types of changes and aspires to characterize the literary norms of the 1950s. Revisions of these works led to a fundamental shift of the genre that could be described as ‘journalistic prose fiction’, and served as an ideological variant of the historical novel. The study argues that a novelist could become a Socialist Realist by abandoning the perspective of the engaged witness, and narrate stories with the task to legitimize the present. The present was to be depicted as a necessary consequence of the whole course of history until the point of publication.
Journal: Korunk
- Issue Year: 2013
- Issue No: 02
- Page Range: 42-60
- Page Count: 19
- Language: Hungarian