CZECH WRITER ALEXEJ PLUDEK IN LETTERS TO UKRAJINIAN SCHOLAR VOLODYMYR MOTORNYI

Abstract

Personal letters of the Czech writer, of the middle of the second half of the twentieth century Alexej Pludek (1923–2002) to the Ukrainian scholar-slavist, literary scholar, professor of Lviv University Volodymyr Motornyi (1929-2015) are presented in this work. The issues, given in the letters are considered on the background of the specifics of the development of the literary process in Czechoslovakia in so-called “normalization period”. There are also issues related to the creation of individual works by the Czech writer and further evaluation of them by Czechoslovak and foreign literary criticism.
Problems related to the history of the creation of individual works of the Czech prose writer and their subsequent assessments by Czechoslovak and foreign literary critics are also covered. Special attention is paid to the place of Serbo-Lusatian themes both in V. Motornyi's literary studies and in A. Pludek's literary work. The presented letters cover the 70s – 90s of the last century, which were the period of particularly active socio-political and creative activity of Alexei Pludek.
Alexei Pludek, whose literary debut took place in the 1940s, was a Czech writer, politician, playwriter, editor and public figure whose works were especially popular in the 1970s and 1980s. The author is known primarily for his novels on historical themes, as well as works in the genre of science fiction.
Volodymyr Motornyi (1929–2015) was a Ukrainian scholar, professor of Slavic philology at National Ivan Franko University of Lviv, author of numerous works on Czech and Serbo-Lusatian literature as well as on Czech-Ukrainian, Lusatian-Ukrainian and Czech-Lusatian literary and cultural ties.