Authors

As the first child of the well-known prose writer and dramatist Karol Sidon, Kateřina Sidonová’s childhood was bound up with the fate of her father – a literary figure who was not allowed to publish and who was forced to move to Germany after signing the Charter 77 citizens’ manifesto (after which he decided to study to be a rabbi in Israel). These events in her life were to be the basis of the author’s long-awaited first prose work Jsem Kateřina (I am Kateřina), which was published when she was thirty-eight. To a large extent she reflects faithfully on her childhood and youth, so that later, and with a greater degree of fiction, she can examine the traumas of a woman growing into middle age who is bringing up several young children with her husband, a fairly amiable man whose kindness hides a profound egocentricity. As far as genre is concerned, it is neither a psychological novel (even though the description of the main character forms the focal point for the whole narrative) nor a critique of society in pre-1989 Czechoslovakia (in particular from 1968 until the 1990s). However, this does not change the fact that political events of the time are interwoven with these episodes, and that into the fate of the main character is projected the author’s own position as the daughter of an exile and opponent of the regime (the result of which is she is unable to study at university in the area which she feels she is meant to). The author herself aptly characterises the basic style of her debut novel as “fragments which I remembered; fragments from which I tried to make a mirror to look at myself. Maybe there aren’t enough to make a complete picture, but it doesn’t matter. At least everyone can imagine what they want to…” The defining factor of the author’s “fragments” in the book Jsem Kateřina is the mosaic of decisive experiences and key episodes in the life of the main character, which Sidonová generally presents in a highly emotional and markedly expressive tone, so that the latent feelings of emotion on the one hand conjure up a vivid description of the childhood experiences of a little girl whose family is falling apart (in the same way as the social structure of the parents), and on the other hand with the dilemma of a woman who has found herself in an unresolvable dispute: the events in her life have conspired to land her in the position of a mother and housewife – a position which is much better suited to individuals with a completely different mentality and education to those which seem to be characteristic of Kateřina Sidonová’s writings. In this sense, in the context of Czech literature in the third millennium, her prose appears objectively as a striking feminist statement - even though it is presented from an artistic view of reaching a crossroads in life, she does not attach any militant message, which at times has been identified as a feature of feminist writings. If we do not count the author’s book of short stories Syn stromu a jiné pohádky [The Son of the Tree and Other Stories] (another book of short stories is being completed by Sidonová) as her first work, then it is in her literary debut (written for adults), Jsem Kateřina, that we first come across the fictional character Jakub. Here the narrator sketches out the strands and motifs which connect him to Kateřina. These elements are elaborated on more fully in her latest novel Jakub. The story does not reflect everyday reality, rather it presents an extensive artistic metaphor, which takes the form of a parable of the eternal tribulations in people’s lives, of the conflicts between love and feelings of baseness and hatred, and of the quarrels involving passion and sin. If the central theme of Jsem Kateřina was an introspective account of a prematurely aged woman, in Jakub the binding force of the narrative is the compelling story (again expressive, though this time without any unnecessary philosophical subtext), which has a dramatic denouement and even contains humorous (or tragicomic) passages.

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This profile was last updated on April 1st 2006

Deutsch Kateřina SIDONOVÁ, Deutsch.doc

En français Kateřina SIDONOVÁ, En français.doc