The Works The Demon of Consent and Delayed Reports as Critical Reflections of Their Time
Abstract
The present study deals with two prominent personalities of literary, cultural, and social life, respectively their (in their time) important works. One of them is Dominik Tatarka and his cardinal work Démon súhlasu [The Demon of Consent, in magazine form in 1956, in book form in 1963] and Ladislav Mňačko and his Oneskorené reportáže [Delayed Reports, 1963]. In the turbulent years after the Second World War, when Czechoslovakia struggled to define its state character, both representatives radically sided with the regime and supported it in all their activities. For example, both Tatarka and Mňačko were involved (to some extent) in the conviction of wrongly accused individuals. However, they were among the first to understand the system’s destruction and criticise it publicly. The works, Démon súhlasu [The Demon of Consent] and Oneskorené reportáže [Delayed Reports], became significant in this regard. At the time of their publication, both texts boldly named the pernicious practices of communist totalitarianism and foreshadowed and contributed to the change in the social climate that led to the Prague Spring. Based on an interpretative probe, the present study aims to approach the semantic dimensions of these works and, through literary instrumentation, make accessible a mode of critical reflection on the communist regime.
Key words
Communist Regime. Critical Reflection. Czechoslovak Writers. Interpretive Probe. Literary Work.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.34135/ejmap-24-02-07
Antošová, M., & Vrábel, K. (2024). The Works The Demon of Consent and Delayed Reports as Critical Reflections of Their Time. European Journal of Media, Art & Photography, 12(2), 112-121.