Scholarly record

THE EXILE VIEWPOINT OF JOSEF SKVORECKYВ’S THE COWARDS AND THE END OF THE NYLON AGE

K. Slamova

Abstract

Igor Hajek belongs among the personalities who played an essential role in presenting Czech literature abroad. The paper aims to illustrate his work reflecting his viewpoint of two important books by Josef Skvorecky, namely The Cowards, a novel capturing the atmosphere of the last days of the Second World War, and The End of the Nylon Age, a novella set in the world of the fading glory of the post-war Czechoslovak democracy, and shows the clash of two worlds, which is SkvoreckyВ’s favourite topic. HajekВ’s original, resourceful, and objective reflection of Czech literature helped to form an opinion of foreign readers on Czech literary production within the period and development contexts, thus promoting Czech literature abroad. Igor Hajek wrote for English-speaking readers and approached them by comparing Czech authors with well-known English writing authors. Therefore, he did not only present the interpretations of the fundamental works of Czech literature, but he put these works into the world context. The article presents these comparisons and deals with the search for a point of contact, interesting parallels and inspiration sources, including jazz music and the beat generation.

Publication details

Back to publication list