Abstrakt
The study analyses the image of Bratislava in interwar Czech travelogues and novels through the eyes of postcolonial criticism. Its primary focus is on the analysis of the literary representations of Bratislava in various modalities and narratives.
The Slovakophile way of capturing Bratislava, as seen in L. N.
Zvěřina's legionary novel, continues before 1918, where a sarcastic opposition to the emotional relationship to Slovakia takes place. In the 1930s, a new modality arises, highlighting Bratislava's oriental imagery (S.
K. Neumann, V.
Nezval, J. Seifert).
The Czech perspective includes a variety of specific figures that explain the Czechs' view on the transformation of the originally German-Hungarian city into Slovak Bratislava. For example, the figure of the Czech appropriation of Bratislava, the figure of the Czechs as saviors and the Slovaks as victims in the fight for the Bratislava-Danube bridge.
In the context of Bratislava's urban culture, the new modality introduces new images, especially exotic, oriental images of Bratislava's wine bars and cafés. Bratislava's literary representations alternate between images of home and colony.