Exile and Shelter in the Work of Egon Hostovský, Vilém Flusser and Ivan Blatný

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study is concerned with the topology of shelter in literary texts of several Central European authors who in various times shared similar thoughts and/or experiences connected with exile in the period of the Cold War and its roots. The starting point is the word úkryt (shelter), which was employed by the writer Egon Hostovský for the title of a novel set in the period of the Second World War. In Hostovský’s psychologically-charged space of shelter, one can find parallels to the work of Franz Kafka, especially his piece ‘The Burrow’ (Der Bau). Hostovský in his postwar work comes up with a different interpretation of homelessness, which corresponds with the conceptions of philosopher Vilém Flusser, with the prose of W.G. Sebald, and works by other authors. The conclusion of this article is dedicated to the Czech poet Ivan Blatný, whose poetry can be read as the construction of a shelter through the medium of writing.