Libuše Moníková in Memoriam

Book excerpt: The novelist and essayist Libuše Moníková (1945-1998) made a unique contribution to German, Czech and world literature, writing in German from a distinctly Czech perspective in a manner which can best be described as encyclopaedic and highly intertextual. Positively received abroad, particularly in Germany and the US, her works remained until recently relatively unknown in the land of her birth. This volume, whose appearance marks what would have been the sixtieth anniversary of her birth, is the first in-depth study of the work of this truly European writer. It contains specially commissioned articles by Czech, German, US and British scholars, as well as an appreciation by her friend and fellow writer F.C. Delius, an English translation of one of her last interviews, and the first comprehensive bibliography. The essays range from close readings of a single text, in particular the satirical, picaresque novel Die Fassade and the posthumously published Der Taumel, to surveys of themes, techniques or motifs within her œuvre, for example nation, exile, history and myth, and studies of Moníková’s intertextual references, particularly to film and the work of Arno Schmidt. The contributions emphasise the comic, the personal and the ambiguity in her works, as well as the sheer breadth of Moníková’s interests and sources.