Bohemica Olomucensia

The Key to Sudetenland or Sudetenland in Contemporary Czech Prose

The study deals with the issue of the depiction of the Sudetenland in contemporary Czech prose production. Using the examples of Leoš Kyša's Sudetenland and Pavel Šuba's Klíč k Morgenlandu (The Key to Morgenland), it shows two different ways of treating the theme of the coexistence of Czechs and Germans in Czechoslovakia. The article compares a detective story set against the backdrop of counterfactual history with a narrative about the fictional characters' search for their roots in the historically authentic environment of the Moravian-Silesian Sudetenland. Set in border area of Czech Republic in 1990s, through Sudetland Kyša offers sceptical view on coexistence of two ethnical groups in the same geographical area which, according to the author, must result in a tragedy conditioned by hatred and grievance of people insurmountable even after many decades. The Key to Morgenland, on the contrary, shows that the attainment of the knowledge of bypast events works as a key to understanding each other which could result in mutual conciliation. The text reflects two opposite approaches to the theme of coexistence of ethnics in Sudeten, area which is lately frequently used for a fictional space setting in the contemporary Czech fiction.

Keywords: Sudetenland; Morgenland; contemporary Czech prose; Leoš Kyša; Pavel Šuba; World War II; deplacement; Velvet revolution; counterfactual fiction