FISIOPATOLOGIA DE LA COLESTASIS

After solving the crisis, it was necessary to offer indicative solutions for the ensu- ing life of the protagonists. Prose that did not fi nish with August 1968 therefore comprised also the next phase of the development of the socialist state and society, so-called “normalisation” or the consolidation of the state of affairs. In this phase, Communists who had experienced “liquidation” during the Prague Spring period returned to their posts and functions. Because of the calming of the atmosphere and the end of public activities, families were united again, having been divided because of different opinions about the political situation and by the dispute about the time devoted to public engagement at the expense of the family; the birth or conception of a child was sometimes used as a symbolic image of the new life to come. In general, the “new era” was presented as a time of stabilisation and har- monisation of conditions.

In novels in which the main protagonists were young people, their “life exam” was confi rmed by their new, and in contrast to their previous experiences now solid and mature relationships (concluded sometimes by marriage). Political maturity was accompanied by their activities in the local Socialist Union of Youth (SSM) representing identifi cation with the new regime.

Whereas new doors opened to positive characters who had an optimistic perspec- tive, negative characters, i.e. those who had engaged in the reform movement, either emigrated to the West or were forgotten. A detailed description of a “typi-

88 Ibid., p. 198.

89 Ibid., p. 197.

90 MALACKA, E.: Pod Bílými kopci, p. 150. 91 Ibid.

cal” dissent group was offered in Procházka’s Lišky mění srst: the representatives of artists and intelligentsia who did not adapt to the new regime and still stood in opposition lost their former jobs and now worked manually – however, only in those professions where they could get hold of money and profi t from “illegal dealings.” They became gas station assistants, taxi drivers or barmaids who were connected with crime and forex scams.

In the case of the literary depiction of emigrants and their motivation to leave their homeland, “normalisation” fi ction made use of an ideologically suitable model used in prose dealing with the February takeover and could, therefore, stick to communist “best practice.” The motivations of the protagonists, it was shown, always stemmed from their desire to have better material conditions and words about freedom served as a “cover”; occasionally, the motif of running away from one’s conscience or family problems was used. The decision of the protagonists to emigrate was accompanied by naïve expectations of an easy life and grandiose plans that, however, had nothing to do with the actual results: the emigrants could gain employment and livelihood only as unskilled labour or even ended up in prison, while women often had to work as strippers or prostitutes; they came back only exceptionally and got a second chance. The bad end for emigrants was the logical outcome of their previous attempts to gain money or power; such people were often, from the class point of view, determined on “treason” as former members of the bourgeoisie and the intelligentsia.

The subject of the moral and political awareness of initially undecided characters thinking about emigration also fi ts the older pattern. The decision to stay in their homeland was not challenged even by the “test” that came in the form of the emi- gration of one of their closest family relatives, husband or wife: the disagreement on the question of emigration disqualifi ed the relationship and actually determined its end. Refusing emigration, and an unpromising relationship, provided space for a new, better relationship for the positive characters. Říha’s Doktor Meluzin [Doc- tor Meluzin] was the most prominent example in this category. The main topic was the start of a new life for a Prague senior medical consultant, now a general practitioner in the country. It was here that he broke away from the problematic relationship with his wife, who had emigrated, and found a lady with whom he took care of a child and enjoyed real human happiness.

The analysis of the literature under review shows that the values praised were not only the family relations highlighted above and active participation in “nor- malisation” political life (which automatically included the rejection of the Prague Spring “fraud”), but also political and civil stability, loyalty and fi rmness. As well as traditionally “loyal” Communists, most often pre-war members of the Communist Party of working-class origin, the changed conditions and new experiences found shape also in non-traditional heroes, likewise praised by the regime, such as the main positive character in Karel Houba’s Postel s nebesy.

The main protagonist, Pavel Daneš, came from a petty bourgeois family and, even though he was not a party member, he did not succumb to political opportunism and did not engage in the “reviving process.” In contrast, the main negative character,

represented in the form of his wife, had been a long-time member of the party, was of a working-class background and eventually emigrated from the country. This turn from typical patterns of class friends and enemies even caught the interest of Josef Škvorecký, for instance, who characterised Houba’s hero as “a positive hero of Socialist Realism in its third development phase,” praised by the regime as a “hardworking, law-abiding citizen of the socialist state who keeps his opinions to himself”; he continued with his description by saying Daneš was a citizen “endowed with common sense […] patiently bearing injustice and bullying, surviving all the social somersaults […] and staying permanently at home, in Czechoslovakia.”92

The fact that the “normalisation” phase of “Socialist Realism” had words of praise not only for party members but for all other loyal citizens who decided to stand on the right side, was indirectly formulated in a book written by Bohumil Říha, in a letter written by the main hero, a non-party member, who characterised himself as a “lonely walker”: “Perhaps you think that loyalty is only about nodding your head and simple agreement. Yet, my loyalty is something completely opposite. It includes the recognition of socialism as the future of the world, but it is also a two- sided struggle: against powers that pull us away from socialism and, at the same time, fi ght against the hidden force of habit. It does not change it that sometimes I did not realise this and did not always act according to it.”93

One of the protagonists in the novel Svědomí put it well when he spoke of the changing status of the individual in a state where belief in communist ideals and in a vision of a better future faded, where personal zeal was not required anymore and where simple loyalty to the ruling circles was suffi cient. Without intending it, he expressed the essence of the new stage of socialist Czechoslovakia that followed the events of the so-called Prague Spring and the Soviet occupation of 1968: “It is not about love or hatred today. It is about sense – there is place for sense here.”94

The Czech version of the article, entitled Obraz “pražského jara” v “normalizační”

próze, was originally published in Soudobé dějiny, Vol. 12, No. 2 (2005), pp. 309–333.

92 ŠKVORECKÝ, J.: Několik poznámek k psychopatologii současné české prózy, p. 284. 93 ŘÍHA, B.: Doktor Meluzin, p. 111.