Copyright by Abigail Ruth Weil 2013 The Thesis committee for Abigail Ruth Weil Certifies that this is the approved version of the following thesis: Between Then and Now, There and Here, Guilt and Innocence: Škvorecký’s Two Murders in my Double Life and the Ambiguities of Transitional Justice APPROVED BY SUPERVISING COMMITTEE: Supervisor: ___________________ Mary Neuburger ___________________ Veronika Tuckerova Between Then and Now, There and Here, Guilt and Innocence: Škvorecký’s Two Murders in my Double Life and the Ambiguities of Transitional Justice Abigail Ruth Weil, B.A. Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts The University of Texas at Austin May, 2013 Acknowledgments A great many people, institutions and chance opportunities contributed to the process that has culminated in this thesis. The entire faculty, staff and student body at the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies at the University of Texas has been incredibly supportive of this work in particular and my studies in general. Two Foreign Language Area Studies grants, administered by the University’s Center for European Studies, allowed me to focus all my energies on Czech studies, both language and literature. The combination of a Summer FLAS and a University of Texas Czech Endowment research grant enabled me to spend the summer of 2012 in Prague, studying Czech and conducting research. Additionally, it was both a great honor and a great help to present my work-in-progress at two conferences, last spring’s Czech Studies Workshop and this fall’s South Central Modern Language Association Conference. Two people must be recognized individually for their contributions to this work. First of all, Mary Neuburger, on top of teaching, writing and directing our Center, has been an indispensable supervisor and a generous mentor. I felt largely out of my element analyzing the historical and political context of this novel, and Dr. Neuburger’s assistance was invaluable. Next, a dayenu for Veronika Tuckerova, who not only acquainted me with Škvorecký but also introduced to me the subject of transitional justice, veered me away from more obvious works towards Two Murders in my Double Life, encouraged me to participate in my first academic conference, coached me through the writing process, gave me sources both textual and human and even taught me Czech. Without her guidance, my time at UT and my plans for the future would have been completely different. Finally, this work, as with everything I do, is dedicated to the memory of Jennifer Day, whose commitment to Slavic languages and literatures continues to inspire me and all of those lucky enough to have studied with her. iv Between Then and Now, There and Here, Guilt and Innocence: Škvorecký’s Two Murders in my Double Life and the Ambiguities of Transitional Justice by Abigail Ruth Weil, M.A. The University of Texas at Austin, 2013 Supervisor: Mary Neuburger I situate Škvorecký’s novel as both a primary document in the historical record of transitional justice and as a literary creation in the author’s larger oeuvre. In creating this work of autobiographical fiction, Škvorecký deals with the ambiguities of a tumultuous historico-political moment and creates an appropriately complex work of art. I combine social science research with close-reading of the text in the tradition of new historicism. In the introduction I explain the historico-political background, specifically transitional justice and lustration in Czech Republic in the early 1990s, that engendered Two Murders. In my first chapter, I examine the book reviews, Czech and English, that appeared following the two language-respective publications of Two Murders. In the remaining three chapters I present my analysis of the novel based on close-reading and applied historical information. Chapters two and three discuss different but interconnected manifestations of distance. Chapter two examines memory as the temporal distance of the mind, while chapter three explores exile as spatial distance. Škvorecký invests memory and exile with enormous significance, and uses both concepts to depict his characters’ isolation. In the final chapter, I discuss rumor and reputation in the novel’s two distinct story-lines, demonstrating how they come together to create a cohesive artistic work. Approaching the novel as both a historical document and a work of art, I hope to critically examine this complicated historical moment and appraise Škvorecký’s contribution to the post-communist Czech dialogue. v Table of Contents Introduction..........................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1: Background and Critical Reception.................................................................14 Chapter 2: Memory............................................................................................................39 Chapter 3: Exile ................................................................................................................58 Chapter 4: Rumor and Reputation.....................................................................................81 Conclusion.......................................................................................................................105 Works Cited.....................................................................................................................109 vi Introduction Two Murders in my Double Life is a doubly unique novel. Josef Škvorecký originally published the book in 1996 in Czech as Dvě vraždy v mem dvojím životě: detektivní román, částečně autobiografie (Two Murders in my Double Life: detective novel, partial autobiography) through the publishing house Ivo Železný. In 2001 Škvorecký produced his own English translation of the novel, and published it as simply Two Murders in my Double Life through Farrar, Strauss and Giroux. And though the blending of political commentary with autobiographical fiction is common in Josef Škvorecký’s work, this book is a singular contribution to the civic discussion of 1990s Czech Republic. To date, it is one of the very few literary works that can be considered part of the historical record of Czech transitional justice. This is simply because Two Murders in my Double Life is on the very short list of Czech works of art that deal with collaboration and transitional justice. Other works include Petr Placák’s 2007 novel Fízl (“Snitch”) and the films Pouta (“Shackles,” released in the US as Walking Too Fast) from 2009 and Konfident (“Agent”) from 2012. Each of those works, however, is more precisely about collaboration under communism than the transition that followed. Two Murder’s uniqueness comes into even sharper focus when the reader considers it not from a strictly literary but an interdisciplinary perspective. This novel, like all literature, is at once a work of fiction and a historical document. Two Murders is a reaction to and an exploration of a particular historical moment in which its author was personally, though 1 not voluntarily, involved. The novel is a unique example of both a historical record and a literary text. The early 1990s were a fraught time in Czech Republic, as in the post-communist world at large, rife with ambiguities in the conceptions of both past and future. But while social scientists and politicians are expected to produce, respectively, workable explanations and concrete proposals, artists have the freedom, even the responsibility, to work with and within uncertainty. In creating this work of autobiographical fiction, Škvorecký addresses and deals with the ambiguities of a tumultuous historico-political moment and succeeds in creating an appropriately complex work of art. My approach to this novel combines social science research with close-reading of the text in the tradition of new historicism. Sources include historical and sociological texts as well as literary criticism and other examples of Škvorecký’s fiction. In addition to textual sources, I conducted a series of informal, but invaluable, interviews in Prague in the summer of 2012 with specialists on various aspects of Škvorecký’s project.1 I situate Škvorecký’s novel as both a primary document in the historical record of transitional justice and as a literary creation in the author’s larger oeuvre. In the first chapter I examine the book reviews, Czech and English, that appeared following the two language-respective publications of Two Murders. Chapters two and three discuss different but interconnected manifestations of distance. Chapter two 1 Michael Špirit, June 6, 2012, Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague; Adam Hradilek and Radim Schovanek, June 21, 2012, Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, Prague; and Jiří Peňás; July 26, 2012, Shopping Center, Nový Smichov, Prague. 2 examines memory as the temporal distance of the mind, while chapter three explores exile as spatial distance. I argue that Škvorecký invests memory and exile with enormous significance, and uses both concepts to depict his characters’ isolation. In the final chapter, I discuss rumor and reputation in the novel’s two distinct story-lines, demonstrating how they come together to create a cohesive artistic work. Approaching the novel as both a historical document and a work of art, I hope to critically examine this complicated historical moment and appraise Škvorecký’s contribution