Title: Prague palimpsest : writing, memory, and the city /
Authors: Thomas, Alfred, 1958-
Publisher: University of Chicago Press,
Year: 2010
Subjects: Legends Czech Republic Prague.; Libuše (Legendary character); Jewish ghettos Czech Republic Legends.; Golem; Prague (Czech Republic) In literature.
Abstract: Envisioning Prague as a multilayered text, or palimpsest, that has been constantly revised and rewritten, Alfred Thomas argues that it has become a paradoxical site of inscription and effacement, of memory and forgetting, a utopian link to the pre-war and pre-Holocaust European past and a dystopia of totalitarian amnesia.
Contents: Women on the verge of history: Libuše and the foundational legend of Prague -- Deviant monsters and wayward women: the Prague ghetto and the legend of the golem -- The castle hill was hidden: Franz Kafka and Czech literature -- A stranger in Prague: writing and the politics of identity in Apollinaire, Nezval, and Camus -- Sailing to Bohemia: utopia, memory, and the Holocaust in postwar Austrian and German literature -- Epilogue: Postmodern Prague?