A Prague text

Reconfiguring marginality in and of Europe

Bibliographic Data

ID7889472
AuthorsLucy Gasser (0009-0008-7251-2909)
Year2023
Volume59
Issue1
Pages15-27
Publication date2023-01-02
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Postcolonial Writing (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1744-9855 • E-ISSN: 1744-9863
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17449855.2022.2092956
OpenAlexW4313592270
LanguageEN
References cited21

While postcolonial scholarship has long sought to decentre Europe, the cumulative effects of such work have been to fetishize and homogenize a figure of Europe. Recent scholarship has recognized the value of reading postcolonial narratives alongside the ramifications of the Cold War for enriched understandings of each and both together. This article enters these conversations by developing a “migrational” reading of three texts about the city of Prague: Czech-born Libuše Moníková’s Prager Fenster (1994), South African-born Nadine Gordimer’s A Sport of Nature (1987), and Indian-born Nirmal Verma’s Days of Longing (1964). Proposing the notion of a “Prague text”, this reading performatively decentres Western Europe while maintaining a nuanced grasp on differences within the continent. The juxtaposition enabled by a Prague text puts up for scrutiny various attributions of European centrality, as the article critically engages notions of “Europeanness” and challenges configurations of Europe as a determining point of reference

Art · Critical reading · Linguistics · Literature · Narrative · Political science · Reading (process · Scholarship · Scrutiny · Sociology · Central European national history · European Cultural and National Identity · European history and politics · Gender Studies · History · Law · Philosophy

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