Regional literature and interculturality - using the example of literature from the Bohemian Lands

Abstract

The author strives for the (theoretically substantiated) conceptualization of the German literature of the Bohemian Lands (and Prague). The analysis of Eduard Goldstücker’s unsuccessful attempts to classify them as a national literature demonstrates that this does not lead to any results. But the concept of ‚minor literatures‘ by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari also offers no basis. Johannes Urzidil’s diagnosis of ‚Hinternationalität‘, which is entirely compatible with the concept of regionality, seems more suitable. In principle, however, nothing is gained by understanding the German literature from the Bohemian countries as ‚regional literature‘. It is necessary to show in detail how the various ethnic groups in Bohemia differentiate themselves from one another, interact, and coexist with each other. This can only be achieved with an open concept of the region – such as the concept of ‚soft spaces‘ with ‚fuzzy boundaries‘ that has become established in human geography. Finally, it must be demonstrated in which acts of communication a phenomenon such as the literature of the Bohemian Lands has been established – only in case that such communication can also be demonstrated between the ‚Germans‘ and the Czechs we can speak of an intercultural region with reference to literature. The concept of the border is to be transcended by the concept of a horizon, in which it is not assumed that units are juxtaposed and thus demarcated from one another, and the production of which must always be proven anew in detail.