Re-defining the Literary Fact: The Example of Bohumil Hrabal

Bohumil Hrabal (1914-1997) is widely considered among the greatest innovators of 20th century literature. He belongs to the Czech literary canon and has been a celebrated writer all around the world since the 1970s. Given Hrabal's long timespan of production-basically from the 1940s to his death-during decades of critical changes in Czechoslovakian history, politics, culture and society, both the reception and the scholarly approaches to his texts have several times featured misunderstandings and misinterpretations when dealing with the definition of many aspects of his writing. He did not choose exile, nor did he support the cultural policies of totalitarianism, he kept publishing his works despite being subjected to censorship, but also took part in the circulation of prohibited literature through samizdat editions. I will try to analyze some aspects of such a fluid and complex issue from what I think to be the strategic concepts of history, interpretation, and nationality in order to understand if it is possible to re-define the role and works of authors like Bohumil Hrabal in the study of twentieth century literature.