Through a study of the work of three important writers, this thesis engages with the traumatic memories of the second half of the twentieth century in Czechoslovakia in order to highlight the value of literature in widening critical understandings of the continuing legacy of this complex era, which was dominated by totalitarian regimes under the Communist governments which gained control after the upheaval of the Second World War. Whilst these years were not unilaterally traumatic, many lives were dramatically affected by border closures and by the experience of living under a regime that maintained control through methods including confiscation of property, surveillance, arbitrary imprisonment, show trials, and executions. Many of the stories of this era could not be published openly because of censorship, and the persecution of intellectuals led to a wave of emigration, during which a number of writers moved to France. Using theories of trauma, exile, illness, and of self and other, this thesis opens up a dialogue between the work of three writers who engage, albeit from very different perspectives, with this little-explored intersection between Czech and French. The first chapter explores Daniela Hodrová's translated Prague trilogy as a first-hand witness to her nation's dispossession and as a form of resistance to the deletion of memory. The second chapter considers the painful transgenerational legacy of the era as it plays out in the work of bilingual writer Jean-Gaspard Páleníček. Chapter Three considers the ways in which the Prague novels of established French author Sylvie Germain negotiate the fine line between an appropriation of the stories of the other and a moral responsibility to bear witness. By bringing these authors together for the first time and locating their work within French Studies, my work foregrounds the need for Western criticism to pay attention to other valuable voices who can contribute to our understandings of the traumatic experience that has shaped modern history.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att analysera Grebzdes novellsamling Bergen enligt Michail Bachtins kronotopteori. Jag baserar min kronotopmodell, som uppstår i Bergen, enligt de modeller som utvecklats av litteraturvetaren Juris Rozītis. Romanerna, vilka undersöks av Rozītis behandlar tiden efter andra världskriget i flyktingläger och hur flyktingarna upplever de första åren utanför sitt gamla hemland Lettland samt hur de bosätter sig i det nya landet. I denna uppsats tänker jag gå ett steg längre än Rozītis, eftersom jag ska analysera hur flyktingarna, dvs. novellernas karaktärer, lever i det nya landet. / I have analyzed the collection of Irma Grebzde's short stories "Where the Mountains Meet the Sky", published (in the Latvian language) in 1962 in New York, USA, and found that the times and venues in Grebzde's narratives correspond to the chronotope models developed by literary historian Juris Rozītis for novels written in the immediate post-Second World War years. I have expanded upon the Rozītis' models, and created a new model called "Alone in the New Country". This new model describes and positions Irma Grebzde's short stories in Canada - the new country. It also places the parallel space of Latvia, now occupied by the Soviets - outside the immediate circle of the abstract external chronotope, since in Grebzde's short stories, the old homeland no longer has such a dominating function.

This diploma thesis aims to demarcate the term "exile" and its conditions, further the thesis explores the impacts this experience has on a writer's work, especially the problem of writing in a foreign language and the character of translation. Concretely the present thesis is based on the literary work of Libuše Moníková and Milan Kundera. The first chapter examines the general research field in detail and the occurrence of related themes in the production of both authors. The following two chapters treat individual aspects of work created under the condition of exile - language and translation on the one hand, the correlations of text and history on the other. The findings of all analyses performed within this diploma thesis relate not only to the individual authors, but can be employed to specify and supplement the over-all picture of Czech literature of the second half of the 20th century, as the phenomenon of exile is essential for the understanding of this specific period. Keywords Literature in exile, Milan Kundera, Libuše Moníkové, Prague Spring, translation.

Cette thèse étudie la façon dont trois romans latino-canadiens utilisent le trope de l’exil comme allégorie d’un trauma historique qui comprend plus que l’expérience individuelle de ses protagonistes : la transition forcée de l’État vers le Marché en Amérique latine effectuée par les dictatures. Cobro revertido (1992) de José Leandro Urbina; Le pavillon des miroirs (1994) Sergio Kokis; et Rojo, amarillo y verde (2003) de Alejandro Saravia, explorent divers aspects de ce processus à travers les exercices de mémoire de leurs personnages. L’exil oblige les protagonistes de ces oeuvres à se confronter aux limites des structures sémiotiques par lesquelles ils essaient de donner un fondement idéologique à leur existence sociale. Ils découvrent ainsi qu’il n’est pas possible de reproduire des hiérarchies, des valeurs, ni des relations de pouvoir de leur pays d’origine dans leur pays d’accueil, non seulement à cause des différences culturelles, mais aussi à cause d’un changement historique qui concerne la relation du sujet avec la collectivité et le territoire. Ces œuvres abordent l’expérience de ce changement par un dialogue avec différents genres littéraires comme le roman de fondation, la méta-fiction historique du Boom, le roman de formation et le testimonio, mis en relation avec divers moments historiques, de la période nationale-populaire aux transitions, en passant par les dictatures. Cela permet aux auteurs de réfléchir aux mécanismes narratifs que plusieurs œuvres latino-américaines du XXème siècle ont utilisé pour construire et naturaliser des subjectivités favorables aux projets hégémoniques des États nationaux. Ces exercices méta-narratifs comprennent le rôle de l’écriture comme support privilégié pour l’articulation d’une identité avec le type de communauté imaginaire qu’est la nation. Ils servent aussi à signaler les limites de l’écriture dans le moment actuel du développement technologique des médias et de l’expansion du capitalisme transnational. Ainsi, les auteurs de ces œuvres cherchent d’autres formes de représentation pour rendre visibles les traces d’autres histoires qui n’ont pas pu être incorporées dans le discours historique officiel. / This thesis studies how three Latino-Canadian novels use the trope of exile as an allegory of a trauma that goes beyond the individual experience of their protagonists: the transition from State to Market led by the dictatorships in Latin-America. José Leandro Urbina’s Cobro revertido (1992), Sergio Kokis’s Le pavillon des miroirs (1994), and Alejandro Saravia’s Rojo, amarillo y verde (2003) explore different aspects of this process through the memory of their characters. Exile forces these characters to confront the limits of the different semiotic structures that they try to use as an ideological foundation for their social lives. They discover that it is not possible to recreate the same hierarchies, values and power relations of their home countries in their host country, not only because of cultural differences, but also because of a historical turn that has changed the relationships between the subject, the community and the territory. These novels work-through the experience of this change by entering a dialogue with different genres, such as the foundational romance, the Boom’s historical meta-fiction, the Bildungsroman and the testimonio, covering various historical periods, from the national-popular to the dictatorships and the democratic transitions. Thus, these authors reflect on the mechanisms used in several works of 20th century Latin-American fiction to create and naturalize subjectivities aligned with the hegemonic projects of the nation-states in the region. These meta-narrative exercises also cover the role of writing as the privileged media for the articulation of an identity based on the type of imagined community that is the nation. They point to the limits of writing in the present state of media’s technological development and the expansion of transnational capitalism. This allows these authors to explore other forms of representation that make visible the traces of other stories that could not be dialectically incorporated into the official historical discourse. / Esta tesis estudia la manera en que tres novelas latino-canadienses utilizan el tropo del exilio como alegoría de un trauma que va más allá de la experiencia individual de sus protagonistas: la transición forzada del Estado al Mercado operada por las dictaduras en América Latina. Cobro revertido (1993) de José Leandro Urbina; Le pavillon des miroirs (1994) de Sergio Kokis; y Rojo, amarillo y verde (2003) de Alejandro Saravia exploran diversos aspectos de este proceso a través del ejercicio de memoria de sus personajes. El exilio obliga a los protagonistas de estas obras a confrontar los límites de las matrices semióticas con las que intentan dar un sustento ideológico a su existencia en sociedad. Ellos descubren que no es posible reproducir las jerarquías, valores y relaciones de poder de sus países de origen en el país de acogida, no solo por las diferencias culturales, sino también a causa de un cambio histórico que atañe a la relación entre el sujeto, la colectividad y el territorio. Estas obras elaboran la experiencia de este cambio a través de un diálogo con distintos géneros literarios como los romances fundacionales, la meta-ficción histórica del Boom, la novela de formación y el testimonio, abarcando diversos momentos históricos, desde el periodo nacional-popular hasta las transiciones, pasando por las dictaduras. De este modo, sus autores reflexionan sobre los mecanismos narrativos con los que muchas obras del siglo XX latinoamericano han servido para construir y naturalizar subjetividades favorables a los proyectos hegemónicos de los Estados nacionales. Este ejercicio metanarrativo se extiende al papel de la escritura como medio de articulación de una identidad con el tipo de comunidad imaginada que es la nación, señalando sus límites en momento actual del desarrollo tecnológico de los medios de comunicación y la expansión del capitalismo transnacional. De este modo, los autores de estos textos exploran otras formas de representación que hagan visibles los residuos de otras historias que no pueden ser incorporadas por la dialéctica del discurso historiográfico oficial.