HOLT MEYER 85
tells of nothing but the utter rejection of any connection to the corporeal bond of
biological fatherhood on the part of the ‘Austrian officer’. The washing of the feet as
the stage direction for this speech can thus not be an affirmation of corporeality itself.
It would affirm all the more the biblical references mentioned earlier, particularly
that of Martha’s sister Mary anointing Christ’s feet by spreading costly oil upon them
with her hair — Mary being the very one whose job it is to listen, indeed to listen to
the wisdom of a Savior whose role in history is to overcome the power of the flesh
itself — except it is the woman whose feet are being washed/anointed, not the man.
Still, the rejection of the biological father which is the upshot of the story told by
‘můj muž’ is in its own way an overcoming of the flesh and of biological family analo-
gous to that of Christ, who says:
There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or
wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospelʼs, / but he shall receive an
hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and
children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life (Mark
10: 29–30).
It would be possible and indeed quite enlightening to follow this biblical trail further,
but that will have to take place in another study. I note here that this too is a transfer-
ring and transferred reading.
THE ENDS OF A CLOWN-MASK, THE CLOWN-MASK OF AN ENDING
Vždycky jsem byl tím kulovým filkem, který se prochází ve slunci s rolničkou v ruce,
ta zdánlivé šaškovský čepice mne provází i dnes [I was always that Schellenober
(queen/jack of diamonds)
30
walking in the sun with a jingle bell in his hand, and this
seeming foolʼs cap accompanies me till today] (Hrabal 1995b, p. 221, trans. H. M.).
Truly: hrabal means he dug, he scratched or he raked. It is impossible to tie off all the
loose ends left in these remarks, including, as I just noted, with the implications of
the Christological framing just sketched (it seems to link up to the appearance of Je-
sus Christ and the other biblical figures and Catholic saints in texts ranging from Mo-
rytáty a legendy
31
in the 60s to Too Loud a Solitude in the 70s, perhaps even to the Kain
complex which goes back to the early 50s). It is impossible to even hint at the direc-
tions such an analysis might take.
30
The name of this card in the Deutsches Blatt for games like Schafkopf, Skat and the Czech
Mariáš cannot be translated in terms of the French card system, since the German/Bohe-
mian card system has no female figures, while at the same time the position of the Ober/
filek corresponds to the queen, and Schelle/koule corresponds theoretically to diamonds.
31
In this context it would be essential to take up the brilliant study of Xavier Galmiche
(2002) on Morytáty a legendy as a ‘collage de genres’, particularly since there is a special
focus on the most relevant text for the issue, Legenda zahraná na strunách napjatých mezi
kolébkou a rakví.
86 SLOVO A SMYSL 24
It is possible only to note that our work in this field has just begun and marvel at
the fact that his work is beginning so late in the course of Hrabal studies, thus short-
changing a body of writing whose value for the working through of transferred and
transferring reading is enormous. I hope to at least have demonstrated the enormity
of this value.
Coming back to the issue of transferred and transferring reading itself, I hope to have
demonstrated that the exact manner and mode in which a writing reading (literally)
incorporates the read text into its corpus need to be retraced with great patience.
Things are more complex than they seem at first glance. The text’s composition is
the product of great literary handicraft (and craftiness) than the first impression of
messy jottings might indicate, just as the impression of a simple masking of autobi-
ography turns out to be a ploy of the text which many have fallen for.
I hope to have indicated that one needs to read with a mind to the complexity of
the hospitably receiving house of the text. This house text reads by writing, i.e. receives
by giving a new space. Having said this, I know I am, to give one example of possible
complexities, potentially provoking a whole new discussion on the writerly and the
readerly text coming out of Barthes’s S/Z. The same must be said about an application
of Derrida’s late philosophy of hospitality which has been in the background of all
references to the house, to the oikos.
Finishing my argument with the question of cultural transfer, I note that the is-
sue of natural language and national culture is made extremely intricate in the Hra-
bal’s text. This is indicated by the bringing of the odd couple of ‘Mr. Marysko’ and ‘Mr.
Barthes’ onto the stage. But also the official Neostalinist Internationalism which frames
the political surroundings of Proluky / Gaps as a text associated with a ‘writer in liqui-
dation’ is a key factor for the assessment of the overdetermined border transgressed
in the reading writing and the writing reading at hand. Much methodological attention
could be paid to the reflection on the ideological which could in some way be derived
from East and West or from the ‘second World’s’ work with the ‘First World’. How-
ever, all of these larger issues can only be properly addressed when one retraces the
intricate steps the text itself is taking in dealing with appropriated alien texts such
as that of Barthes. Precisely because this appropriation is takes place in the mode of
self-declared ‘clowning around’, it needs to be treated as serious business.
The text plays at playfulness and masks the truth of masking. The work of trans-
ferred and transferring reading in the case of Roland Barthes is based on this es-
sential double gesture which could be read as a comment on any ‘semantic gesture’
(Mukařovský) which might be associated with the model of authorship which
a Hrabalʼs texts works though.
LITERATURE
Barthes, Roland: Leçon inaugurale de la chaire
de sémiologie littéraire du Collège de France
prononcée le 7 janvier 1977. Seuil, Paris 1978.
Barthes, Roland: Le degree zero de l’écriture. In
idem: Oeuvres complètes, vol. 1. Seuil, Paris
1993, pp. 137–191.
Barthes, Roland: Writing Degree Zero, trans.
Annette Lavers and Colin Smith, foreword by
Adam Thirlwell. Hill & Wang, New York 2012.
Bensmaïa, Réda: Barthes à l’essai. Introduction
au texte refléchissant. Tübingen — Paris,
Narr — Edition Place 1986.
HOLT MEYER 87
Bident, Christophe: Le geste théâtral de Roland
Barthes. Hermann, Paris 2012.
Brown, Andrew: Roland Barthes. The Figures of
Writing. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1992.
Carmody, Jim: Reading Scenic Writing:
Barthes, Brecht, and Theatre Photography.
Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism 5,
1990, no. 1, pp. 25–38.
Češka, Jakub: Psaní Bohumila Hrabala na
pomezí literatury. Slovo a smysl 7, 2010,
no. 14, pp. 53–73.
Derrida, Jacques: The Deaths of Roland
Barthes. In idem: The Work of Mourning, eds.
Anne Pascale-Brault and Michael Naas.
University of Chicago Press, Chicago —
London 2001, pp. 31–68.
Ette, Ottmar: Roland Barthes. Eine intellektuelle
Biographie. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1998.
Fulka, Josef: Text, trhlina, zkamenělina:
k jednomu hrabalovskému motivu. Česká
literatura 58, 2010, no. 6, pp. 758–766.
Galmiche, Xavier: Faits-divers sanglants et
légendes: in «collage de genres». In idem
(ed.): Bohumil Hrabal, palabres et existence.
Presses de lʼUniversité de Paris-Sorbonne,
Paris 2002, pp. 111–126.
Gil, Marie: Roland Barthes. Au lieu de la vie.
Flammarion, Paris 2012.
Hrabal, Bohumil: Terrains vagues. In idem:
Les noces dans la maison. La trilogie des
souvenirs, trans. Claudia Ancelot. Seuil, Paris
1990, pp. 453–602.
Hrabal, Bohumil: Morytáty a legendy. In idem:
Kafkárna, eds. Karel Dostál, Claudio Poeta
and Václav Kadlec. Pražská imaginace, Praha
1994 (Sebrané spisy Bohumila Hrabala, vol.
5), pp. 239–384.
Hrabal, Bohumil: Svatby v domě, ed. Jaroslava
Janáčková. Pražská imaginace, Praha 1995a
(Sebrané spisy Bohumila Hrabala, vol. 11).
Hrabal, Bohumil: Kdo jsem. In idem:
Kdo jsem, eds. Karel Dostál and Václav Kadlec.
Pražská imaginace, Praha 1995b (Sebrané
spisy Bohumila Hrabala, vol. 12),
pp. 221–262.
Hrabal, Bohumil: Ze zápisníku zapisovatele,
eds. Vladimír Gardavský, Claudio Poeta and
Václav Kadlec. Pražská imaginace, Praha 1996
(Sebrané spisy Bohumila Hrabala, vol. 18).
Hrabal, Bohumil: Ich dachte an die goldenen
Zeiten, trans. Susanne Roth. Süddeutsche
Zeitung, Frankfurt am Main 1999.
Hrabal, Bohumil: Proluky, ed. Robert Kubánek.
Mladá fronta, Praha 2008.
Hrabal, Bohumil: In-House Weddings, trans.
Tony Liman. Northwestern University Press,
Evanston 2010a (Writings from an Unbound
Europe).
Hrabal, Bohumil: Vita nuova, trans. Tony Liman.
Northwestern University Press, Evanston
2010b (Writings from an Unbound Europe).
Hrabal, Bohumil: Gaps, trans. Tony Liman.
Northwestern University Press, Evanston
2011 (Writings from an Unbound Europe).
James, Petra: Bohumil Hrabal: «composer un
monde blessant à coups de ciseaux et de gomme
arabique». Classiques Garnier, Paris 2012.
Jankovič, Milan: Tři tečky v Prolukách
Bohumila Hrabala. In idem: Nesamozřejmost
smyslu. Československý spisovatel, Praha
1991, pp. 193–210.
Jankovič, Milan: Kapitoly z poetiky Bohumila
Hrabala. Torst, Praha 1996.
Jankovič, Milan: Flux de narration, flux parlé:
un «collage de genres». In: Xavier Galmiche
(ed.): Bohumil Hrabal, palabres et existence.
Presses de lʼUniversité de Paris-Sorbonne,
Paris 2002, pp. 127–148.
Kennedy, J. Gerland: Roland Barthes,
Autobiography, and the End of Writing. The
Georgia Review 35, 1981, no. 2, pp. 381–398.
Lavers, Annette: Roland Barthes. In: The
Cambridge History of Literary Criticism, vol.
8. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
1995, pp. 131–165.
Martin, Christian: Roland Barthes et l’éthique de
la fiction. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main —
New York 2003.
McQuillan Martin: Barthes (or the profession of
cultural studies). Palgrave Macmillan, London
2011.
Meyer, Holt: Švejkovo přiznání (Psaní
a písemnosti v Haškově textu). In: Luboš
Merhaut (ed.): Světová literárněvědná
bohemistika. Materiály z 1. kongresu světové
literárněvědné bohemistiky, vol. 2. Ústav
pro českou literaturu AV ČR, Praha
1996, pp. 630–638.
88 SLOVO A SMYSL 24
Meyer, Holt: Sebekanonizace masových
písní: Stopy a jejich absence v archive. In:
Stanislava Fedrová (ed.): Otázky českého
kánonu. Sborník příspěvků z III. kongresu světové
literárněvědné bohemistiky Hodnoty a hranice.
Svět v české literatuře, česká literatura ve světě.
Ústav pro českou literaturu AV ČR, Praha
2006, pp. 436–449.
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Devenir-animal a česká autofilologická
deteritorializace. In: Lenka Jungmannová
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literárněvědné bohemistiky. Ústav pro českou
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‚begrenzten Souveränität‘: Bohumil Hrabals
Kdo jsem. In: Nora Schmidt — Anna Förster
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hrabalien. in: Xavier Galmiche (ed.):
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de lʼUniversité de Paris-Sorbonne, Paris
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RESUMÉ / RÉSUMÉ
Masky Rolanda Barthese v Prolukách Bohumila Hrabala:
výklad přenosu a přenosy výkladu
Zmínka o Rolandu Barthesovi v jedné klíčové pasáži Hrabalových Proluk je zde čten jako index opa-
kování a vyjednávání autobiografična (které nesmíme zaměňovat s autobiografičností samotného
textu, alespoň ne ve vztahu k autorovi, resp. jeho ženě jakožto nominální vypravěčce). Jankovič
sice odmítal odlišování jednotlivých perspektiv a zdůrazňoval, že se řeč textu hroutí do textu „je-
diného vypravěče, který v sobě spojuje všechny [ostatní] hlasy“, avšak pečlivé čtení pasáže obsahu-
jící zmínku o Barthesovi — v níž se též objevuje Hrabalův biologický otec ve dvou verzích a v po-
době balíčku fotografií — prokáže relevanci přesného odlišení obou hlasů a médií, k čemuž nutno
vztáhnout Barthesova zkoumání distribuce hlasoví a temporality v měšťanském románu, zároveň
objasňující ironičnost postmarxistického vstupu do neostalinistické scenérie. Tak vypadají pod-
mínky pro (zatím nikdy důsledně provedené) přenesené i přenášející barthesovské čtení Hrabalo-
vých textů z osmdesátých let, zvláště těch domněle autobiografických.
Roland Barthes’s Masks in Bohumil Hrabal’s Gaps:
Accounts of a Transfer, Transfer of Accounts
The mention of Roland Barthes in a key passage of Bohumil Hrabal’s Proluky (Gaps) is read here as
an index of a repetition and negotiation of the autobiographical, which should not be confused with
HOLT MEYER 89
the text itself being autobiographical, at least not with respect to its author (or the author’s wife,
the nominal narrator of the text). Despite Jankovič’s insistence on not differentiating perspectives
and collapsing all of the speech of the text into the voice of a ‘single narrator who integrates all
[other] voices’, close reading of the passage mentioning Barthes — which is also the passage in
which the biological father of Hrabal appears in the form of two representatives and a pack of pho-
tographs — makes it clear that exact differentiation of both voices and media is essential, and that
Barthes’ studies of the voicing and temporality of the bourgeois novel must be brought to bear on
this, while of course accounting for the irony of the post-Marxist entry into a neo-Stalinist setting.
These are the conditions for a transferred and transferring Barthes reading of Hrabal’s texts of the
1980s (especially those deemed autobiographical) which has never been systematically and conse-
quently thought through.
KLÍČOVÁ SLOVA / KEYWORDS
Bohumil Hrabal; Roland Barthes; přenos; vypravěči; autobiografičnost / Bohumil Hrabal; Roland
Barthes; transfer; narrators; autobiographical
Holt Meyer | Universität Erfurt
holt.meyer@uni-erfurt.de
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