Petra Hulová
Encyclopedia
Czech literature
Czech literature is the literature written by Czechs or other inhabitants of the Czech state, mostly in the Czech language, although other languages like Old Church Slavonic, Latin or German have been also used, especially in the past. Modern authors from the Czech territory who wrote in other...
.
Education
Hůlová holds a degree in culturologyCulturology
Culturology is the branch of Social Sciences concerned with the scientific understanding, description, analysis and prediction of cultural activities, cultural systems and culture broadly-construed.-History of the term in Russia:...
from Charles University in Prague
Charles University in Prague
Charles University in Prague is the oldest and largest university in the Czech Republic. Founded in 1348, it was the first university in Central Europe and is also considered the earliest German university...
. She lived in Mongolia
Mongolia
Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...
for one year as an exchange student after having studied the language and culture for several years and having originally had her interest sparked by "a chance encounter with the film Urga
Urga (film)
Urga is a 1991 film by Russian director Nikita Mikhalkov. It is released in North America as Close to Eden. It depicts the friendship between a Russian truck driver and a Mongolian shepherd in Inner Mongolia...
by acclaimed director Nikita Mikhalkov
Nikita Mikhalkov
Nikita Sergeyevich Mikhalkov is a Soviet and Russian filmmaker, actor, and head of the Russian Cinematographers' Union.Mikhalkov was born in Moscow into the distinguished, artistic Mikhalkov family. His great grandfather was the imperial governor of Yaroslavl, whose mother was a Galitzine princess...
."
Career
Hůlová rapidly rose to popularity in 2002 with the publication of her début novel Paměť mojí babičce, which became one of the most widely-read Czech books of the decade. The novel is told from the point of view of five female narrators from three generations of the same Mongolian family. She chose to set the novel in Mongolia to avoid the necessity of writing about "artificial phenomena" such as career and media, by which she felt Mongolia had been less "polluted" than Europe; this allowed her to focus on writing about the basic feelings of her characters. The novel won a Magnesia LiteraMagnesia Litera
Magnesia Litera is an annual book award held in the Czech Republic since 2002. The prize covers all literary genres in eight genre categories: prose, poetry, children’s book , non-fiction, essay/journalism , translation, publishing achievement, book debut, and the main prize – one of the genre...
Prize as Discovery of the Year, and was voted Book of the Year by the Czech daily Lidové noviny
Lidové noviny
Lidové noviny is a daily newspaper published in the Czech Republic. It is the oldest Czech daily. Its profile is nowadays a national news daily covering political, economic, cultural and scientific affairs, mostly with a centre-right, conservative view...
.
Hůlová's second novel, Přes matný sklo, is set in Prague. The book, divided into three sections, offers a portrait of a relationship between a son (Ondřej) and his mother (unnamed). The first and third sections are narrated by the son; the second, by the mother. The "frosted" (or "dusty" or "dim") glass of the title presumably refers to the lack of clarity in the way the son and the mother see one another.
Her stay as a Fulbright scholar in the Department of Anthropology at CUNY in 2004–05 inspired her third novel, Cirkus Les Mémoires, set in New York.
Hůlová's fourth novel, Umělohmotný třípokoj, narrated by a 30-year-old Prague call girl with a high-class clientele, won the Jiří Orten
Jirí Orten
Jiří Orten was a Czech poet. His work was influenced by surrealism and folklore. His first book of poems, Čítanka jaro , came out in 1939. He spent time in Paris, but ultimately returned to Prague...
Prize, awarded each year to the author of a work of Czech prose or poetry. The author must be 30 or under at the time the work is finished, and the award carries a prize of 50,000 Kč (roughly $3,000). A stage adaptation by Viktorie Čermáková opened in Prague in 2007. Čermáková choose to attribute the text to five call girls and one narrator.
In 2008, her fifth novel, Stanice Tajga – about a Danish businessman named Hablund who disappears in Siberia after World War II and a man named Erske who, 60 years later, attempts to track him down—received the second annual Josef Škvorecký Award, which carries with it a prize of 250,000 Kč (roughly $14,500).
In October 2009, Northwestern University Press
Northwestern University Press
Northwestern University Press is the university press of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, USA.- History :Northwestern University Press was founded in 1893, at first specializing in legal periodicals. Today, the Press publishes scholarly books of fiction, non-fiction, and literary...
published the first translation of her work in English, All This Belongs to Me, a translation by Alex Zucker
Alex Zucker
Alex Zucker is an American literary translator.-Life and career:Zucker was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey. From ages 4 to 17, he lived in East Lansing, Michigan. He attended college at UMass Amherst, obtaining a Bachelor of Science in Zoology in 1986...
of her début, Paměť mojí babičce.
Works in Czech
(Translations of titles for informational purposes only.)- Paměť mojí babičce (2002; "In memory of my grandmother")
- Přes matný sklo (2004; "Through frosted glass")
- Cirkus Les Mémoires (2005; "Circus les mémoires")
- Umělohmotný třípokoj (2006; "Plastic three-bedroom apartment")
- Stanice Tajga (2008; "Taiga station")
- Strážci občanského dobra (2010)
External links
- Blog for All This Belongs to Me
- Excerpt from early draft of All This Belongs to Me in Transcript no. 22 (March 2006)