Bohumil Hrabal

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Bohumil Hrabal 1988, photo portrait by Hana Hamplová

Bohumil Hrabal (March 28, 1914 in Brno – February 3, 1997 in Prague ) was a Czech writer. He is considered one of the most important Czech authors of the 20th century.

Life

Bohumil Hrabal (born Bohumil František Kilian) was born in Brno, the illegitimate son of Marie Kilianová and the Austrian officer Bohumil Blecha. His biological father was not willing to recognize him as a child, which is why he lived with his grandparents in Brno until he was three years old. When his mother married the accountant of the brewery in Polná František Hrabal in 1916, he adopted Bohumil as his son. The family moved to Nymburk on the Elbe in 1919 , where Hrabal spent his childhood and youth.

Hrabal used growing up in Nymburk in various of his literary works, such as the trilogy The Little Town by the Water ( Die Schur , Schöntrauer , Harlequins Millions ) and The Little Town in which time stood still .

Hrabal was not a particularly good student. He was interested in what was happening in the brewery and in Josef, called Uncle Pepin, the brother of his stepfather František, who “came to visit and stayed until he died”. The flow of words of Uncle Pepin served Hrabal as an inspiration for his characteristic literary style, for which he invented the fantasy word "pábit" (German "bafeln"). A long stylized monologue by Uncle Pepin is found in the adult and intermediate dance lessons .

Hrabal has been writing literary texts since the 1930s, which initially remained unpublished. After graduating from high school in 1935, Hrabal studied at the Faculty of Law at Charles University in Prague. At the same time he also attended lectures on literary history, art and philosophy. Due to the closure of the Czech universities during the Nazi protectorate period , he was only able to complete his studies in 1946. During the Second World War, Hrabal worked for the railways as a dispatcher in Kostomlaty nad Labem , which later also found expression in his work ( Travel according to special regulations - monitored train movement ). As a result, he worked as an insurance agent, traveling salesman and finally, from 1949, as an unskilled worker in a steelworks. After a serious accident, he worked there from 1953 to 1959 as a packer of waste paper in a raw materials warehouse. This time is processed in literature in one of his best-known stories All too loud loneliness , as well as in the first part of the autobiographical trilogy of novels, Weddings in the House . In 1956 Hrabal married Eliška Plevová at Libeň Castle in Prague.

Hrabal's holiday home in Kersko

Hrabal's first texts appeared sporadically in the 1950s. He turned writing to his profession in 1963. In 1965, Hrabal bought a holiday home in Kersko , a settlement in the Hradištko municipality , which became the inspiration for the Snowdrop Celebrations collection .

Hrabal 1985, photo by Hana Hamplová

After the Prague Spring was suppressed, Hrabal's works were banned from publication in 1970. He therefore wrote in samizdat - or exile journals. In 1975 he published a self-critical essay in the journal Tvorba , which enabled him to publish again , sometimes under strict censorship supervision . A number of his works were published by the publishing house Pražská imaginace (“Prague Imagination”), initially a samizdat publishing house. In the years 1991 to 1997 his collected work was published there in 19 volumes.

Bohumil Hrabal died in Prague after falling from the 5th floor of the Na Bulovce Hospital where he was being treated while feeding pigeons . Whether Hrabal's death was a suicide or an accident has not been finally clarified. The unusual manner of death, which has similarities to scenes from Hrabal's work, fueled speculation about suicide. In this context, reference is also made to the three famous Prague lintels , Hrabal's death is said to represent the fourth Prague lintels.

He was buried in the family grave at the cemetery in Hradištko u Sadské . His mother Maryška, stepfather Francin, uncle Pepin, wife Pipsi and brother Slávek are also buried in the same grave.

literary classification

In the productive literary climate of the 1960s, Hrabal asserted himself as one of the most influential figures in Czech literature , although the changing external conditions of censorship meant that the history of publication and impact of his works did not always run parallel to their creation. Typical of Hrabal's style are the mixing of different levels of language , (self-)irony, highly stylized autofiction and numerous intertextual references to other works. Hrabals rejects ideologically committed literature and consistently writes apolitically. He focuses on everyday phenomena, often on the periphery of society, with sometimes bizarre characters and locations. Hrabal developed his own type of character, the talkative Bafler ( pábitel ), who reveals his world view through rambling monologues and through how and what he tells.

"Hrabal is a genuinely Czech writer, whose artistic models can be found primarily in the literature of his homeland, although a distant relationship to Schelmuffsky or Colas Breugnon is noticeable." — Karl-Heinz Jähn

Afterlife and Appreciation

He has received the following literary prizes and awards, among others:

On September 1, 1993, the asteroid (4112) Hrabal was named after him.

Bohumil Hrabal Square (náměstí Bohumila Hrabala) is located in Prague - Libeň at Hrabal's former place of residence . A street and a park in Brno, and a street and a grammar school in Nymburk bear his name. In addition to several other street names in Czech cities, a Bohumil-Hrabal bridge over the Elbe in Lysá nad Labem was named in 2010.

The play Hrabal and the man at the window by Bernhard Setzwein is told from the perspective of afterlife. The world premiere, directed by Mia Constantine, took place on June 6, 2015 at the Theater am Haidplatz in Regensburg .

factories

In German translation

In Czech language

Hrabal and his cats, street art in Prague- Libeň
  • Automat Svět, 1966
  • Bambini di Praga, 1978
  • Barvotisky, 1990
  • Bohumil Hrabal uvadi..., 1967
  • Chcete vidět zlatou Prahu?, 1989
  • Domáci ukoly, 1970
  • Domáci ukoly z pilnosti, 1982
  • Domáci ukoly z poetiky, 1984
  • Dopisy Dubence (4 dily)
  • Harlekynovy milióny, 1981
  • Hovory lidí, 1956
  • Inzerát na dům, ve kterém už nechci bydlet, 1965
  • Každý den zázrak, 1979
  • Clicky on Kapesníku, 1989
  • Kluby poetry, 1981
  • Kopretina, 1965
  • Krasna Poldi, 1990
  • Krasosmutnění, 1979
  • Listopadový uragan, 1990
  • Listování ve stínech grafických listů, 1983
  • Mestečko u vody, 1982
  • Mestečko, kde se zastavil čas, 1978
  • Morytáty a legendy, 1968
  • Můj svět, 1989
  • Něžný barbar, 1973
  • Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále, 1980
  • Ostře sledované vlaky, 1964
  • Pábitele, 1964
  • Perlicka na dne, 1963
  • Ponorne Ricky, 1991
  • Postřižiny, 1976
  • Poupata, 1970
  • Prolucy, 1987
  • Příliš hlučná samota, 1980
  • Schizofrenické Gospel, 1990
  • Skřivánek na niti, 1959
  • Slavnosti sněženek, 1978
  • Svatby v domě, 1987
  • Taneční hodiny pro starsí a pokročilé, 1964
  • Toto mesto je ve společné péči obyvatel, 1967
  • Tri novely, 1989
  • Vita Nuova, 1986
  • Ztracena ulička, 1948
  • Život bez smokingu, 1986

film adaptations

script
  • 1966: Love by Schedule ( Ostře sledované vlaky )
  • 1969: Larks on a Thread ( Skřivánci na niti )
  • 1980: Short Cut ( Postřižiny )
  • 1983: The wild boar is loose ( Slavnosti sněženek )
Literary template
  • 1965: Fádní odpoledne (short film)
  • 1965: Pearls on the Seabed ( Perličky na dně ) (episode film based on five short stories)
  • 1965: Intimate Illumination ( Intimní osvětlení )
  • 1987: Angel's Eyes (short film, HFF Potsdam-Babelsberg)
  • 1989: Něžný barbarian
  • 1994: Příliš hlučná samota
  • 2006: I Served the King of England ( Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále )

literature

  • Péter Esterházy : Hrabal's book Original title: Hrabal Könyve. Budapest 1990, translated by Zsuzsanna Gahse). Residenz, Salzburg 1991, ISBN 3-7017-0690-5 (New revised version: BvT , Volume 32, Berliner Taschenbuch-Verlag, Berlin 2004, ISBN 978-3-8333-0032-5 )
  • Alexander Götz: Images from the depths of time. Memory and self-stylization as aesthetic functions in Bohumil Hrabal's work. In: Heidelberg publications on Slavic Studies. B, Literary Studies Series, Volume 7. Peter Lang, Frankfurt 1998, ISBN 3-631-32840-0
  • Susanna Roth : Loud loneliness and bitter happiness. On the poetic world of Bohumil Hrabal's prose. In: Slavica Helvetica. Volume 25. Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1986, ISBN 3-261-03651-6 (also dissertation at the University of Zurich 1984/1985).
  • Susanna Roth (ed.): Hommage à Hrabal. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1989, ISBN 3-518-40166-1 . (Texts by Hrabal and about Hrabal)
  • Susanna Roth (ed.): Who I am. In memory of Hrabal provided by Susanna Roth. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1998, ISBN 3-518-40961-1 .
  • Monika Zgustová: In the Garden of Paradise of Bitter Fruits , Bohumil Hrabal, life and work (original title: V rajské zahradě plodů translated by Johanna Posset). Suhrkamp paperback 3258, Frankfurt 2001, ISBN 3-518-39758-3

web links

Commons : Bohumil Hrabal  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

itemizations

  1. ↑ http://hradec.idnes.cz/rodina-bohumila-hrabala-pochazi-z-rychnova-nad-kneznou-p1v-/hradec-zpravy.aspx?c=A140328_2050472_hradec-zpravy_kvi
  2. ↑ Ivana Mudrová. Kam značky nevedou III. a další podivuhodné cesty . Prague 2007. ISBN 978-80-7106-891-4 . pp. 155-158.
  3. ↑ a b c d Code of my letter Prager Zeitung on October 10, 2012
  4. ↑ Bohumil Hrabal Slovník české literatury po roce 1945 , Ústav pro českou literaturu AV ČR
  5. ↑ Afterword to "The Death of Mr. Baltisberger", Verlag Volk und Welt, Berlin, 1970, p. 164
  6. ↑ Bohumil Hrabal Online Encyclopedia of the City of Brno
  7. ↑ Minor Planet Circ. 22500
personal data
SURNAME Hrabal, Bohumil
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czech writer
BIRTH DATE March 28, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Brno _
DATE OF DEATH February 3, 1997
PLACE OF DEATH Prague