Authors

Despite the variety of her drama and screenwriting productions (authorship of a range of radio plays, of the drama Draci útočí, the script for the television fairy tale Hořké víno and for the film and television series Saturnin) in her literary work Wagnerová operates exclusively in the realm of the fairy tale. She sees the fairy tale primarily as “a means to broaden the horizons of a child, mould and colour his world, inspire and significantly contribute to the development of his imagination” (see the author’s declaration Kvadratura pohádky in the magazine Ladění, 2002, no. 4). Magdalena Wagnerová’s fairy tales are distinguished by playfulness and inventiveness in the theme, composition and language of their construction. The stories Pohádky pod polštář (1992) already contain in embryonic form techniques which are typical of the author’s conception of the fairy-tale genre, which was crystallized particularly in the collection Proč? Pohádky o rybách, ptácích a jiných zvířatech [Why? Stories about Fish, Birds and Other Animals] (2001) and its counterpart Proto! Pohádky o muchomůrkách, pečených husách a jiných důležitých věcech [Here’s why! Stories about Toadstools, Roast Goose and Other Important Things]  (2002). The architectural subdivision of both books on the basis of the calendar principle (seven stories designed for each day of the week and the larger-scale Pohádka na další týden, consisting of seven chapters) makes for a reinforcement of their narrative dimensions. The aspect of communicability is brought in by the rhetorical question and answer in the titles of both collections, and also by continuous contact with the intended reader. The departure point of the stories is often a saying (“Why can’t a nose see past the end of its nose?”, “Why doesn’t the apple fall far from the tree?”, “Why does love move mountains?”), the inquisitive questions of children (“Why does it always begin at the beginning?”) or variations on etiological and etymological themes (“Why is the praying mantis religious?”). Here Wagnerová plays around with the conventions of the fairy-tale genre („Bylo, bylo a skutečně bylo. Kdysi dávno. Kdesi daleko. Anebo možná docela blízko.“), and also parodies educational literature (in a precisely set out glossary, she carefully distinguishes between „knedlovepřozelo“ and „knedlozelovepřo“). Her next work, Modrá pohádka aneb Kachna namodro (2002), represents a step towards a travesty of the fairy tale. Intrigues in the Blue Kingdom, where because of the king’s senility his counsellor rules, finally lead, after various twists and turns and the triple publication of a recipe for duck a la bleue, to a fairy-tale happy ending. The prose works Pavouk na šalvěji (2003), where there is a direct reference to the poetic of travesty in the sub-title Podzimní (pohádková) travestie [An Autumn (Fairy-Tale) Travesty], and Strom s granátovými jablky are also aimed at adult readers. They are able to appreciate the barrage of amusing literary allusions (an ageing woodland fairy who looks at the world through the prism of the novels of L. N. Tolstoy), parables and symbols. The authoress does not even spare traditional national emblems and icons (“daddy Masaryk”), subjecting the book Staré pověsti české, for example, to a parodic reinterpretation. The storylines of both tales branch out into associatively connected digressions towards a conclusion which takes the action in an arc back towards the beginning. In the fairy-tale picture book Jablečňák (2003) the children’s game, with its anthropomorphizing and fantasy aspect, becomes a decisive element in the plot. Pre-schooler Matěj, growing bored beside his busy parents, gains a new friend in Jablečňák, who is unexpectedly born from the apple core discarded under his bed. Here we also find layering and the insertion of episodes whose causality at times alternates with an associative shift. The problem of the child outsider and the subconscious fear of growing up is idiosyncratically captured in the prose work Pes moudřejší člověka (2004), where the transposition of human fates onto canine characters is the source of humour. Apart from writing her own fairy tales, Wagnerová also dedicates herself to adapting other works. She has retold the classic body of fairy tales (Srdce pohádek, 2002), but she also shows an interest in the exotic material of world folklore, which she has so far introduced in two collections, thematically linked by the motif of water (Pohádky z vodních hlubin, Pohádky z moře, 2004). In the context of contemporary Czech literature for young people, the fairy-tale output of Magdalena Wagnerová represents an isolated attempt at original innovation within the genre.