Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T15:42:07.161Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Lineup for Meat: The Stalin Statue in Prague

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2020

Hana Pichova
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In Prague a debate is taking place over whether an aquarium ought to be built on the site that once housed the largest monument to Stalin. The site is difficult to contend with, not only because it is a physical reminder of the atrocities committed during the Communist rule but also because of the monument's bizarre history, one plagued by absurd events. The monument's history is preserved in obscure historical and fictional narratives. I explore these narratives in terms of monumentality, foreign imposition, socialist-realist aesthetics, power, and humor. I concentrate on the dual function the absurd served in the history of the statue. Reliance on humor, while enabling the Czechs to undercut the monumentality of this emblem of the imposition of foreign power, also fostered a forgetting of the statue's history and political significance. Thus, the Czechs' propensity for the absurd, even if temporarily freeing, ultimately undermines the nation's understanding of its past.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 123 , Issue 3 , May 2008 , pp. 614 - 631
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 by The Modern Language Association of America

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Works Cited

Svetlana, Boym. The Future of Nostalgia. New York: Basic, 2001.Google Scholar
Emanuel, Frynta. “Náčrt základů Hrabalovy prózy.” Epilogue. Automat Svět. By Bohumil Hrabal. Prague: Mladá fronta, 1966. 219–31.Google Scholar
Aaron, Hamburger. The View from Stalin's Head. New York: Random, 2004.Google Scholar
Hojda, Zdeněk, and Pokorný., Jiří Pomníky a zapomníky. Prague: Paseka, 1996.Google Scholar
Bohumil, Hrabal. Inzerát na dům, ve kterém už nechci bydlet. Ed. Kadlec, Václav. Prague: Mladá fronta, 2000.Google Scholar
Bohumil, Hrabal. “Listopadový uragán.” Dopisy Dubence: Sebrané spisy Bohumila Hrabala. Vol. 13. Prague: Pražská imaginace, 1995. 117–38.Google Scholar
Bohumil, Hrabal. Total Fears: Letters to Dubenka. Trans. Naughton, James. Prague: Twisted Spoon, 2001.Google Scholar
Bohumil, Hrabal. “Zrada zrcadel.” Kafkárna: Sebrané spisy Bohumila Hrabala. Vol. 5. Prague: Pražská imaginace, 1994. 170–85.Google Scholar
Jankovič, Milan. Kapitoly z poetiky Bohumila Hrabala. Prague: Torst, 1996.Google Scholar
Karel, Kaplan. Interview. Mar. 2005.Google Scholar
John, Keane. Václav Havel: A Political Tragedy in Six Acts. New York: Basic, 1999.Google Scholar
Milan, Kundera. The Book of Laughter and Forgetting. Trans. Heim, Michael Henry. New York: Penguin, 1981.Google Scholar
Macura, Vladimír. Masarykovy boty a jiné semi(o)fejetony. Prague: Pražská imaginace, 1993.Google Scholar
Pytlík, Radko. … a neuvěfitelné se stalo skutkem: O Bohumilu Hrabalovi. Prague: Co Emporius, 1998.Google Scholar
Pytlík, Radko. The Sad King of Czech Literature: Bohumil Hrabal. Trans. Hayes, Katheleen. Prague: Emporius, 2000.Google Scholar
Derek, Sayer. The Coasts of Bohemia: A Czech History. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1998.Google Scholar
Slovník české prozy 1945–1994. Ed. Dokoupil, Blahoslav and Zelinský, Miroslav. Ostrava: Sfinga, 1994.Google Scholar
Stalinův pomník. Boxes T, 1572, 1573, 1950–54. Natl. Archive of the Czech Republic, Office of Industrial Property, Prague.Google Scholar
Stružková, Karin. “Jak se staví monstrum.” Večerní Praha 2.3 (1990): 1–2.Google Scholar
Štursa, Jiří. “Osudy kolem žulového Josefa Vissarionoviče.” With Marcela Kašpárková. Lidová demokracie 28 Feb. 1991: 6–7.Google Scholar
Svému osvoboditeli Československý lid. Prague: Orbis, 1955.Google Scholar