Authors

The hectic, unanchored writing of Milan Charoust began with verse in the collections Silnice (The Road), Zpěvy nevzdělance (Songs of a Philistine), V nevlídném domě (In an Unfriendly House), Hadrová panenka (Rag Doll), before it overflowed spontaneously into the large novel Ostrov (Island). His style is compellingly self-reflexive; it is emotionally bared introspection, which sparingly sketches out an archetypal profile of a morally upright man against the background of the relativized Postmodern world. The writer is inspired by a romantic, beatnik-like spontaneity of expression: he perceives literature as a non-aestheticized, non-stylized narrative flow, ‘raw’ narration that seeks to tell a life story in words. In his writing, as in his life, Charoust emphasizes the individual’s revolt against the conservative machinery of society, against contemporary European-American civilization in general, which he sees as based on consumerism elevated to a religion and limited by a system of tedious restrictions and fetishes. The author is aware of the quixotic aspect of his personal rebellion and accepts it. His literary statement is often interwoven with sad and, indeed, tragic motifs, and frequently takes on the form of furious litany, not unlike that of the Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard. Nevertheless, Charoust is not one to resign, and as an artist he feels no animosity towards life. His spiritual kinship with the outsider (‘I keep thinking that our compassion for the defeated and the humiliated is what makes us human’) and his fascination with stories from the margins of society (‘it seems to me that there is more life and therefore more to write about on the periphery than in the beautified world of the mainstream’) have plunged him down the road to an impossible destination, awakened in him a unique curiosity and longing for adventure, and, in fleeting moments, allowed him to experience a sense of the purpose of life and genuine catharsis. As Charoust revealed in an interview, ‘The world that surrounds us is filled with mystery, and not only are we never going to reach its source, we’ll never even be able to catch sight of it; this is the vital impetus of life. If this infinite sea of curiosity and constant expectation of something new were not spread out before me, I’d have dried up. For me, each day is magical and each day is a story’.

(rk)

E-mail: milancharoust@volny.cz

This author profile was last updated in 2006

Deutsch Milan CHAROUST, Deutsch.doc