Václav Maidl
Wandering Šumava Natives in Real Life and Literature
The theme of wandering and travelling is captured in the texts of authors from the Šumava region in both memoirs and fiction. Drawing from Josef Rank's memoirs Erinnerungen aus meinem Leben and Karel Klostermann's Červánky mého mládí (The Blush of Dawn of My Youth), the paper focuses on their journeys on foot from their homes to the seats of educational institutions and back, and the common problems they had to deal with during those journeys: physical exertion, weather, finding accommodation, geographical and social orientation in an initially unfamiliar world.
Similarly, Josef Meßner's fictional writing in autofiction Handwerksburschen was based on his own life experience as a wandering apprentice who set out on a journey to gain experience. Meßner spins his story from tried-and-tested prefabricates: a love story with a plot that is happily resolved, or the danger that the poor journeymen will be recruited by Italian recruiters but eventually escape them. The prose, written in the spirit of popular fiction, is dominated by the happy ending (except for the romantically torn main character), and the presence of concrete facts from the world of journeymen gives it a specific tone. In Adalbert Stifter's work, wandering takes several forms. It can be a journey to reach a goal (Bergkristall, Rock Crystal, the narrator's character in Der Waldgänger, The Wanderer in the Forest), but it can also be an escape from danger into inaccessible places (Der Hochwald, The Forest, a secondary motif in the short story Granit, The Granite), but while wandering one can also consciously learn about the geography and history of the landscape one is passing through (Granit). In a metaphorical sense, Stifter's novel Witiko or his short story Abdias can also be described as a depiction of a pilgrimage, this time a life pilgrimage. The paper also pays attention to poet Karel Hynek Mácha, a non-resident of Šumava, and the hypothetical location of his poem Cesta z Čech (Journey from Bohemia) somewhere between Šumava and Mühlviertel.
Keywords: Šumava - wandering in literature - Josef Rank - Karel Klostermann - Josef Meßner - Adalbert Stifter - Karel Hynek Mácha
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