Contestation à rebours. On Writing and Non-Writing of Karel Michal

Abstract

The problem of transfer from the official to the unofficial culture is one of the most significant phenomena in the post-war Czech literature history. Resistance against the limitations on creative autonomy set by the government led to the emergence of particular contestation attitudes and to the creation of counterculture, understood as a dissident and exile culture, as well as the underground. In this landscape, Karel Michal’s position is peculiar and difficult to classify; his contestation is total, as it is pointed at not only the subordination of literature to norms set by the regime, but also at the expectations put on it by the dissident community. In texts which appeared during his exile, he presents an uncompromising approach to the issue of the engagement of literature and roles assumed by a writer arbitrarily. A consequence of his radical position is the growing imperative to not write, which leads to his complete withdrawal from literary life.