Abstract
The article is aimed at abolishing the concept of regional literature, which always has the connotations of a lack of modernity and complexity; the authors of a regional literature are considered as provincial and therefore "poetae minores". The article argues instead for a regional literature research, which sees the literary text as "part of a comprehensive cultural space" (Roger Vorderegger).
Such a "regional turn" could (because of the straightforwardness of the field he examines) accomplish, what the "cultural turn" only has promised until now. However, "region" in this sense must be accepted as a heterogeneous area, the supposed boundaries of a region must be recognized as cultural constructs and it has to be observed that such constructs are always in negotiation processes with other attributions.
In relation to Bohemia, Moravia and Prague that would also mean to repeal the borders of national philology and investigate literary traditions of German and Czech in their common aspects. Last but not least the division of "poetae minores" (as an object of regional literature research) and "poetae majores" (as objects of a national philology) has to be abandoned.
As a consequence Franz Kafka appears as an author of a region, who broaches in his texts (among other things) also the specific cultural mixture of Germans, Czechs and Jews in the Prague of the early 20th century.