Novel
Démon súhlasu
Not translated into English
Dominik Tatarka · 1956
Synopsis
A fantastical treatise in which the narrator, the writer Bartolomej Boleráz, a double of the author, admits to having lied. He describes a world in which the writers' organisation resembles a hierarchical army, dominated by the Figura, embodiment of power, and peopled by “figurines” who seek their security in the herd; at his side, Mataj has no other driving force than power. The text questions the writer's responsibility, the moral relativism according to which the end justifies the means, and the ideal of a writer who is the conscience of the nation, guardian of the human person in the face of power.
Context
Subtitled a fantastic treatise on the end of an era, the text appeared in April 1956 in Kultúrny život, at the time of the second congress of Czechoslovak writers; the 1963 volume adds a pamphlet, Rozprávka o vládcovi Figurovi. It is regarded as the first Czechoslovak text to dismantle thought control under Stalinist schematism, echoing The Captive Mind by Czesław Miłosz. Václav Havel, who wrote the preface to the French translation by Sabine Bollack published in Belgium in 1986, sees in it a cry of awakening; Eur'Orbem published an edition prepared by Mateusz Chmurski in 2019.
Who it is for
A short, satirical and allegorical narrative, in a vivid, image-rich language, readable in French since 1986.
Prizes and reception
The text that established its author's anti-Stalinist reputation, and one of his two most acclaimed books.