The short-story writer, columnist, essayist and author of children’s fairy tales Petr Chudožilov was born on February 2nd 1943 in Prostějov. After finishing school he worked for ČTK (the Czech News Agency), he studied journalism at the Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University in Prague, but left before his final exams. In the 1960s he worked as a lumberjack and hod carrier, between 1967 and 1969 he was the editor of the literary reviews Literání noviny, Literární listy and Listy. During the period of normalization he once again worked in the labouring trade. In 1982, under pressure from the state security services, he emigrated to Switzerland with his family. He worked on the Czech broadcasts from Voice of America. In the 1990s he again began to work with Czech publishers and radio. He lives in Swiss Basel.
Petr Chudožilov has been a freelance writer since 1990. He writes columns, short stories and fairy tales in Czech and German. His books have been published in Czech, German, Italian, Spanish, Hungarian and Slovenian. In 1991 his work was placed on the Honours List of the IBBY and two years later won the prestigious European Prize for best German short story. Until recently the author worked as an external contributor for the radio station Český rozhlas 6, writing columns for the Saturday programme Názory a argumenty (Opinions and Arguments), and he continues to work with several German radio stations; for example, he writes bedtime stories for Bavarian radio. In the fairy tale Balada o Bobíkovi aneb Pacient Dr. Gordona (1998) (The Ballad of Bobík or Dr Gordon’s Patient), Chudožilov encoded the secret of dreams and how to make them come true: a young boy desperately wants a dog and dreams up his dog angel; when the child “transmits” his image it becomes real. The German publications, including the book of short stories Na velrybě (On The Whale), the fairy-tale novel Cesta ke hvězdnatému nebi (Journey To The Starry Sky), the fantastical short stories Příliš mnoho andělů (Too Many Angels), and the book of short stories for very young readers Charlotte, myš z Huglfingu (Charlotte, The Mouse From Huglfing), are similarly of a very wise morality which is perhaps more surprising to adult readers. Petr Chudožilov’s Czech publications are mainly collections of columns and essays which have a distinctive, appealing style. This applies to his first work, the book of short stories Kapři v kvetoucích trnkách (1969) (Carp In The Blossoming Blackthorn), his radio columns Boj o fusekli (1996) (The Battle Of The Socks), the collection of articles from 1967-1998 entitled Proč necítím národní hrdost (1999) (Why I Don’t Feel National Pride), as well as his collection of columns Kulturní šok (2000) (Culture Shock). The author generally follows two distinctive currents in his writing. On the one hand he strives to reflect on the cultural environment from which he comes and which he sensitively deciphers in his warped discourses. At the foundation of these states it is possible to recognise the notion of the “good old days”, slightly ironic, a gently patronizing label of the socialist era as one of comfort, parasitism and corruption. Another typical aspect of Chudožilov’s thinking concerns his second home, Switzerland, where he has successfully assimilated, and through whose traditionally neutral views he can comment naturally on current events in Europe. His viewpoints are very diverse, from critical references to unhealthy narrow-minded Czech attitudes, through thumbnail sketches of various Neruda-like figures, to global concerns, albeit with European roots, based on the defence of abstract but fundamental notions of democracy and humanity. As a witness who actively lived through the end of the 1960s with its recurrent thaws and hardening of conditions, Chudožilov has within him the inevitable pathos from the feelings of wasted opportunities, the loss of something important, perhaps directly of national pride. And also the need to compare, to search for possibilities, or at least the smallest thing which might offer a defence of the present atmosphere. Within a Czech context Petr Chudožilov is most “visible” due to his positive backing of the demands of the Sudeten Germans and at the same time his critical views of Edvard Beneš. At heart though, Chudožilov is markedly cosmopolitan. His father was a Russian, born in St Petersburg. His grandfather was born in Vladivostock and made his way over to Europe a long time ago by sleigh, as the Trans-Siberian railway had not yet been completed. He is Moravian on his mother’s side, although his predecessors, in addition to Russians, also include Poles, Lithuanians, Germans, Englishmen, Greeks and Turks. He is Swiss according to his passport. The central theme of his work, therefore, comes down to the search for the answer to the question: “Why don’t you have a proper name like the others, why aren’t you like me?”
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This profile was last updated on January 1
st 2008
