Language:
German
Year of publication:
1999
Titel der Quelle:
Juden und Judentum in Literatur und Film des slavischen Sprachraums
Angaben zur Quelle:
(1999) 53-69
Keywords:
Fuks, Ladislav.
;
Herz, Juraj
;
Spalovac mrtvol (Motion picture)
;
Motion pictures
;
Jews in motion pictures
;
Jews in literature
;
Czech literature History and criticism 20th century
;
Jewish literature History and criticism
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in motion pictures
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in literature
Abstract:
Distinguishes two waves in Czech postwar Holocaust literature. Novels written between 1948-53 tend to glorify the resistance and provide realistic descriptions of the concentration camps. Works dating from the end of the 1950s and until 1968, take a psychological and existential approach. Argues that Jewish themes were popular in Czech literature before and during the Prague spring because they provided a rare venue for criticism of totalitarian society. The works of Ladislav Fuks (1923-1994), who was not Jewish, typically represent these tendencies. His "Spalovač mrtvol" ("The Cremator"), published in 1967 and adapted to the screen by Jural Herz in 1968, was one of the last works in this wave. It is a psychological horror story, situated in the 1930s, about a cremator, who through the influence of Nazi propaganda and oriental philosophy kills his half-Jewish wife and son. Views the book and the screen version as self-accusations for Czech and especially Slovakian collaboration during the war.
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