Iulius Hondrila (K.U.Leuven)

Prague in Victorian Fiction: An Imagological Approach

Re-thinking Europe as a space of the dynamic cultural interplay of evolving identities in a continuously changing historical context is closely connected to the re-imagining, analysis, and understanding of the ‘self-other’ relations between Europeans throughout history. In this context, it is revealing to look at the role played by literary representations in processes of identity forma- tion, in constructions of national awareness and of cultural diff erence, and in the dissemination of images of the ‘self ’ and of the ‘other’ (i.e., auto- and het- ero-images). Historically, literature has been one of the most powerful tools in constructing lasting auto-and hetero-images of places and people (Leers- sen, “History and Method” 6). As a consequence, many scholars within the fi elds of literary and cultural studies have tried to deconstruct and critically analyze literature’s role in processes of national identity formation. As Joep Leerssen points out, literary discourses are “by no means the least important ones when it comes to the formulation and dissemination of national ste- reotypes” (“Rhetoric” 281). Imagology, a research program that emerged in Western Europe in the aft ermath of the Second World War and that built on the foundations of comparative literature, tries to deconstruct and analyze the literary hetero- and auto-images concerning character and identity as cultural discursive constructs constitutive of national identifi cation patterns, or stereotypes, along with the mechanisms that make them possible (Leers- sen, “History and Method” 5). As identities are fl uid and transformative per- ceptions born in the interplay between ‘self ’ and ‘other,’ between hetero- and auto-images, they are inextricably linked with images. Th e imagological ap- proach requires both historical contextualization in the study of images as dynamic results of cultural diversity and interaction and in-depth analysis of the image qua image, i.e., qua persistent pattern of perception and repre- sentation (Barfoot 285-86). Literary depictions of the relationship between the Western European ‘self ’ and the Eastern European ‘other’ are a case in point. Th e post-1989 context of European integration and EU enlargement has led to a renewed scholarly interest in past and present cultural encounters between Eastern and Western Europe. My aim in this article is to show the extent to which today’s encounters are still shaped by past representations. 238 Iulius Hondrila

In order to demonstrate this, I will focus on Victorian literary represen- tations of Eastern Europe(ans). Historically, Victorian literature is particu- larly signifi cant. It was produced at a time when the British Empire was at its political and military zenith, and it therefore enjoyed a wide audience in and beyond Britain (Dolin 100). Furthermore, it coincided with a British ‘rediscovery’ of Eastern Europe, particularly aft er the revolutions of 1848, Britain’s involvement in the Crimean War (1853-56), and the struggles for national emancipation throughout Eastern Europe in the second half of the century. Within this framework, the depictions of Prague, in those days the capital of the Habsburg province of Bohemia, and of its inhabitants (Czechs and Czech Jews) in the works of the English writers George Eliot and An- thony Trollope off er an opportunity to witness the way some parts of Eastern Europe were perceived in Britain at that time. George Eliot’s Th e Lift ed Veil (1859) and Daniel Deronda (1876), and Anthony Trollope’s Nina Balatka (1867), Th e Eustace Diamonds (1871-73), and Phineas Redux (1873-74) are among the most prominent literary works of the period that depict Eastern Europe(ans). Eliot and Trollope are considered to belong to the elite of Vic- torian fi ction, in so far as their literary status and output is concerned. Th e correspondence between these two prominent Victorian writers also indi- cates a personal friendship, and their literary works sometimes bear witness to the infl uence they had on each other (Escott 183-85). Th ey both visited Prague and are likely to have found inspiration in each other’s portrayals of the city (Hennesy 191-92). While their references to the nationalist strug- gles for independence there and throughout (Eastern) Europe are largely sympathetic, Prague appears in their novels as a backward and sometimes uncanny place. Th eir ambiguous depictions thus convey a sense of exoticism but at the same time also a certain uneasiness and fear of similar movements of emancipation throughout the British Empire, and indeed within Britain itself, and, most importantly, also of massive immigration from Eastern Eu- rope (Winder 253-54). Th e choice of Prague as the topos to demonstrate the persistence of hetero- images regarding Eastern Europe is, I am aware, far from obvious. Aft er 1989, Prague has become a favorite tourist destination and one of the most prosper- ous cities in the whole of Europe. Th e picture of Prague today appears to be the complete opposite of that depicted in Eliot and Trollope’s works. Can we