ABSTRACT
The Shoah belongs to the constant motifs and topics in Czech literature after Second World War. As in literatures elsewhere the approach to this subject area has changed in the course of time. In the literature of the last few decades the representatives of the younger generation increasingly tend to search for new forms in dealing with the Shoah. In contrast to the literature of the former generations, who emphasized the uniqueness and singularity of the Shoah, the contemporary authors often associate it with other crises or catastrophes, or use the Shoah imagery for demonstrating the permanence of the catastrophic state of the world (a concept which was, among others, developed by Walter Benjamin). Such a new approach can be called “postcatastrophic.” This chapter attempts to show some aspects of this approach using the example of Radek Malý (born in 1977), one of the most talented lyric poets in contemporary Czech literature. In Malý’s poetry, we find a constant presence of Shoah motifs from the very beginning (collection Lunovis, 2001). His hitherto most successful work is the collection Little Darkness (2008) which contains several poems that reference the Shoah and Second World War. The innovative, occasionally disrespectful, and taboo-breaking treatment of the topic indicates that this is no conventional poetry about the Shoah. Instead, it becomes apparent that these poems are subordinate to the concern of the entire collection in which a general consciousness of crisis is evoked, a crisis showing the traits of a ubiquitous, never-ending catastrophe. This impression is created by an imagery revealing many facets of this critical state of affairs. The effect is increased by the fact that the sometimes shocking and provoking images and statements are embedded within a rather conventional poetic form.
