Lost in translation? Jáchym Topol’s The Devil’s Workshop and its local and transnational reader

Jáchym Topol, who is a Czech writer and poet, has several times emphasized that he does not care about his readers, especially foreign ones who get to read translated versions of his work, as it is not his job to be understood. With the rise of transnational WWII-related literature in the Czech Republic in the last two decades, I explore how his novel The Devil’s Workshop has become an important work in the realm of transnational literature, despite Topol’s peculiar writing style and stance towards his international readers. In my analysis, I explore Topol’s writing style, the novel’s socio-historical context through the concept of difficult heritage and the juxtaposition of Czech and Belarusian WWII narratives, as well as the novel’s local and international reception.

This article’s aim is to explore how writing style, literary aesthetics, and content can influence international and local reception of a novel taking place in a transnational setting. I focus on the context and reception of a novel called The Devil’s Workshop, written by a Czech author Jáchym Topol, first published in Czech in 2009. Furthermore, I also explore the novel’s place within transnational literature. Transnational literature can help bridge the gap between different countries’ memory and heritage, and that is what Topol’s novel does in regards to Czech and Belarusian WWII–related past. The context of the novel is explored through concepts including “difficult heritage”, “memory entrepreneurship”, and “genocide tourism”. In terms of the context analysis, this article focuses on the juxtaposition of WWII-related memorialization practices in the former Czech concentration camp Terezín and a Belarusian massacre site in Khatyn, which lie at the core of the novel. The novel’s reception is explored on both local and international level, through publically available online reviews. In terms of reception, I focus on the reader’s interpretations of the novel, their stance towards its ideas, as well as Topol’s writing style and use of dark humor. The results show how a novel written for a local audience managed to open up the floor for self-reflection and raise awareness of the past and WWII-related memory differences within Europe.