Well Learned Lesson on Bohumil Hrabal. The Case of Paweł Huelle’s Novel »Mercedes Benz«

Abstract

Paweł Huelle’s novel Mercedes-Benz [orig.: Mercedes-Benz. Z listów do Hrabala] from 2001 is the example of a direct reference in the Polish literature to Bohumil Hrabal’s works. Mercedes-Benz is tribute to the Czech writer, and Huelle admits it openly. The main motive of the novel is based on the Hrabal’s short story Evening Course [orig.: Večerní kurs]. However, it is not the content that constitutes the most interesting aspect of the novel. The article describes perception of Mercedes-Benz in Poland and it says that Polish reviewers perceived only superficial references; this fact was the reason for criticism and incomprehension. Reference to the novel I served the King of England [orig.: Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále], apparent in Mercedes-Benz‘s structure, its levels of narration and antimimetic statements, does not appear in any review. There is only one reviewer that points out the pastiche and well describes literary devices thanks to which Paweł Huelle got the effect of Bohumil Hrabal’s poetics. The article takes account of differences between Czech and Polish literary traditions where types of oral narration (in particular the genre of drawn-out stories: gawęda and hospodská historka) function in different ways. Incomplete comprehension of the novel Mercedes-Benz is caused by several factors that are described in the article.