6533b7d2fe1ef96bd125e3b5

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Literature as a representation of changes in urban landscapes after 1945 (on Polish, Czech and Slovak examples)

subject

description

The paper focuses on changes of urban and cultural landscapes after 1945 under the communist regime in a way that they were presented in Polish, Czech and Slovak literature published after 1989 (when a climate for talking about politically uncomfortable topics has changed). The main subject of the author‟s interest is how surrounding landscape influences people‟s behaviour demonstrated in literary pieces. The destruction caused during the WWII in Polish (former German) towns like Gdańsk, Szczecin or Wrocław and decision of contemporary authorities not to restore anything for many decades forced citizens to live in increasingly decaying surroundings. In Czechoslovakia, due to expulsion of German citizens, massive migration movements took place and the parts of the country (so called Sudetenland) have been inhabited by newcomers, who ignored the places‟ history, while simultaneously unable to find their own identity. Losing historical values of Polish, Czech and Slovak towns lead to the loss of identity and moral precepts by citizens – protagonists of literary pieces, as if the authors wanted to say that not only people create their neighbourhood, but also – how surroundings can influence inhabitants‟ fates. Therefore in Polish, Czech and Slovak literature in past few decades a new trend called “neo-postresettlement literature” can be observed.