Notions of identity in the work of Egon Hostovsky

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Notions of identity in the work of Egon Hostovsky

Miljevic, Radojka; (2000) Notions of identity in the work of Egon Hostovsky. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London). Green open access

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Abstract

This thesis is an examination of personal identity in the work of the Czech writer Egon Hostovsky (1908-73), a major exponent of the twentieth-century psychological 'analytical' novel in Czech. Traditional readings of his oeuvre have been marred by the failure to separate his biography from his fiction. In the pre-Second World War period he has often been labelled as a 'Jewish' writer because of his Jewish background; the post-war reception of Hostovsky has tended either to sentimentalize him or treat his work politically because of his exile from Czechoslovakia both during and after the Second World War. This thesis aims to challenge many of these readings by a disinterested evaluation of his work. This thesis also attempts to demonstrate the consistency of Hostovsky's thematic concerns across his oeuvre both by studying unified blocks of his work chronologically and by discrete studies of important themes. Chapters include Hostovsky's treatment of Jewish identity against the background of Jewish consciousness in Central Europe; Hostovsky's use of the double within the parameters of conventional literary treatments of this device; and Hostovsky's examination of power. Those chapters organized according to a chronological principle break down Hostovsky's work into three periods: the early work (up to the Second World War, although a distinction is drawn between his work prior to the 1930s and thereafter); his wartime and immediate post-war work; and the work of his 'second exile' from the 1950s onwards. The main concerns of this study are Hostovsky's treatment of the Romantic outsider; of social and personal disintegration; and of the individual's struggle for authenticity. This thesis includes criticism of Hostovsky's earliest work published in journals, which has been entirely ignored in the critical reception of his work, and important personal correspondence from the archives of the Museum of National Literature in Prague.

Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Qualification:	Ph.D
Title:	Notions of identity in the work of Egon Hostovsky
Open access status:	An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
Language:	English
Additional information:	Thesis digitised by ProQuest
URI:	https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10103329