Bohemica Olomucensia

From Literature towards Life or The Birth of the Prose Writer Bohumil Hrabal

The aim of the study is to analyse literary work by Bohumil Hrabal. The author starts with the interpretation of Bohumil Hrabal's poetry. He states that it was Hrabal's poetry that had moved his point of view on literature. Hrabal realized that after two global catastrophes of World War I and World War II there was no reason to produce literature without changing its status. He formulated (in his literary work, of course) this new status using the phenomenon of involvement. This led him to create a world of prose full of specific human speech that the narrator does not comment on but only tells.
The author of the study used for his analyses Hrabal's early literary work written in 40s and 50s of the 20th century. Among the best of them are Kain, an existential short story, Jarmilka, a documentary, Bambino di Praga and Krásná Poldi, both epic poems.