The Czech Émigré Experience of Return after 1989

SEER, Vol.85,No. i, Januay2007 The Czech Emigre Experience of Return after I989 MADELAINE HRON Here at home, we hold no love towards emigres. We didn't like them before, and we don't like them now. Not that we don't concern ourselves with them, we just simply really don't like them. Seemingly it's some kind of tradition here [...] They can go ahead and complain, but since they have no political rights,let them whine, they pose no threat, as long as at home all is quiet.' THIS comment by JirirBigas, made in his, I998 opinion column aptly titled 'The Relationship with One's Own Emigres is a Test of National Maturity', encapsulates some of the problematic perspectives on the return of Czech emigres after I989. Under the Communist regime of I948 to I989, an estimated 550,000 people, or 3.5 per cent of the population , emigrated from Czechoslovakia.2 After the Velvet Revolution, thousands of these emigres returned, with high hopes of returning 'home'. Now, fifteen years later, relatively few of these individuals remain in the Czech Republic; they have left again, disappointed by the disillusionment or discrimination they encountered. The negative attitude towards returning Czechs, ranging from dismissal to latent xenophobia, has been characterized as the 'anti-emigre trauma of Czech politics'.3 For a long time, Czechs were neither willing nor ready to express themselves on this sensitive issue. For example, Jirir Gruntorad, director of the samizdat archive Libri Prohibiti, saw himself as archiving painful memories which could not be adequately articulated in the contentious political climate of the i99os: Every generation has its trauma. Your mother remembered February [1948], your grandfather,the battle of Piava, and now we transmitstories of dissidents.I guessit doesn'tinterestpeople now, it irritatespeople. I have the feeling that it is unfitting,immoral even, to talk about it yet.4 Madelaine Hron is Assistant Professor in the Department of English and Film Studies at Wilfred Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario. 'Jirui Bigas, 'Vztah k vlastnim emigre"umje zkouskou narodni zralosti', Mladafrontadnes, 4 May I998, p. 7. (This and all subsequent translations are mine MH.) 2Jipi Pehe, 'Uprchlici v modernich ceskych dejinach', in UNHCR, UtMk a exil v umAnz, Prague, 2002, pp. 22-24 (p. 23). 3Milan Uhde, 'Vztahy mezi Cechy doma a Cechy v zahranici', Denni Telegraf,12 December I994, p. 3. 4Alena Jezkova, 'Mukl, kterej nekeca', Reflex,5 May I995, p. 28. 48 THE CZECH EMIGRE EXPERIENCE OF RETURN Almost a generationhas passed since the fall of Communism. Perhapsit is now time to addresssome of the contentiousissuesof recent historyand revisitthe traumaticsubjectof returningCzech emigres.Drawingon Czechopinionof the I99OSandthestatements of emigres,I willbrieflysketchoutthemainissuesoftheexperience ofthe emigrereturn.My analysishowever,will explorean aspectthat has been almostcompletelyoverlooked in thisdebate:literature, boththe literature ofexileandmorerecent'fictionofreturn'. I turntoliterature in order to better understandthe experienceof Czech emigres, beforeandafterI989, in itscomplexcultural, psychological andsociohistorical dimensions. Inparticular, I focuson the'painless' representation of the emigreexperienceby emigresthatlargelyinformedtheir receptionby Czechsin the CzechRepublicafterI989. I positthatthe suffering of emigrationand returnhas been repressed in Czechexile literatureand I examinethe effectsof this seemingabsenceof pain. Whathappenswhen the sufferingof emigrationis keptsilent?How doesone interpret the muteddistressin Czechexileliterature? When Czech emigrescould safelyreturnhome, was the hardshipof emigrationerased ?How did emigrewritersreturnhome in theirfiction? Thesearebutsomeofthequestions driving thisretrospective reflection. I. TheReturn oftheCzech Emigre Opustis-1i mne,nezahynu/opustis-li mne,zahynes.5 Shouldyou leaveme, I won'tperish/should you leaveme, youwilldie. This nationalist verseby VictorDyk is well knownby most Czechs. It represents the poetic politicalimaginationadoptedby the former CommunistCzechoslovak regime:MotherNation'swarningagainst emigration and exile. The explicit threat has acquired further resonanceafterthe fall of Communismin the contextof returning emigres. Until I999, commentators observedthat an 'undeclared war was beingwaged'6betweenCzech emigresand Czech citizens,a conflict thatwasreflectedeven in the highestpoliticalechelons.Forinstance, in I990, VaclavKlaus,laterpresident of theCzechRepublic(andthen chairmanof the Civic Forumparty),was askedaboutthe country's futurerelationship with Czech-Americans, and he reputedlyreplied: 'Czech-Americans annoyme'7('krajane mne zlobi').8In 1993, Peter Viktor Dyk, 'Zeme mluvi', in Milan Blahynka (ed.), Ceskd poeziedvacatAho stoleti,Prague, 1980, p. 69. 6 Thomas Pecina, 'When Czechs fight Czechs', CentralEuropeanReview, I9 July I999, [accessed January 2005] (hereafter, Pecina, 'When Czechs fight Czechs'). 7Petr Bisek, 'Are Czechs Outside of the Country Foreigners?' New Presence, 2, 2000, 3, P. 5 v Jaromir...

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