Hybrid Constellations and National Authorship: Prose Fiction by Jaroslav Rudiš (2002–2013) and Olga Martynova (2013)

Abstract

Multiple hybrid constellations in large parts of contemporary prose fiction give reason to question the validity of terms as, e.g., “national authorship”. This comparative study analyzes prose fiction of two Slavic-born authors; The Czech writer and translator Jaroslav Rudiš writing his novels in Czech and the Russian-born Olga Martynova writing prose fiction in German, poetry, however, in Russian. By leaving aside Czech-German history and also by settling two out of five novels in Germany, Rudiš seems to envisage for himself an authorship which might be called “middle European with a Czech background”. Martynova, on the other hand, has been establishing her authorship as a novel-writer – of two texts so far – in reference to the Russian but also to the German and further cultural repertories. In a way, she has internationalized the literature-centered Russian cultural heritage. Attempts at trying to handle the overall hybridity in contemporary prose fiction, among others, have to ascertain in which way national and cultural repertories are affirmed, mixed, re-written etc. and what types of affiliation (cultural, geographical, historical, social) are being exposed in single texts.