A Gothic Soul is the most acclaimed work of Czech Decadent prose. Expressing concerns that are unique to the Czech movement while alluding creatively and ironically to Joris-Karl Huysman's Against

A Gothic Soul

A Gothic Soul is the most acclaimed work of Czech Decadent prose. Expressing concerns that are unique to the Czech movement while alluding creatively and ironically to Joris-Karl Huysman's Against Nature, the novella is set in Prague, which is portrayed as a dead city, a city peopled by shades, who, like the protagonist â€” a nihilist and the "last scion of a noble line" â€” are only a dim reflection of the cityâ€™s medieval splendor. The man lives in a dreamworld, the labyrinth of his soul giving rise to visions. In his quest for meaning, he walks the city, often hallucinating, while pondering questions of religious fervor and loss of faith, the vanity of life, his own sense of social alienation, human identity and its relationship to a â€œnation,â€ the miserable situation of the Czechs under Habsburg rule, and Pragueâ€™s loss of its soul on the cusp of modernity as old sections, such as much of the squalid Jewish Quarter, are demolished to make way for gaudy new buildings and streets. With a history of madness running in the family and afraid the same fate awaits him, he ultimately retreats into seclusion, preferring the monastic way of life as the epitome of unity and wholeness and a tonic to present-day fragmentation. Yet KarÃ¡sek eschews the mawkish, opting instead for darker tones that play with the tropes and motifs of Decadence while conflating the same-sex desires of his protagonist, the fatalism and futility of such an existence within the social construct of the day, with concerns for the dual fates of his nation and city.

Country	USA
Author	Jiří Karásek
Binding	Kindle Edition
Format	Kindle eBook
IsAdultProduct
Label	Twisted Spoon Press
Manufacturer	Twisted Spoon Press
NumberOfPages	141
PublicationDate	2015-03-16
Publisher	Twisted Spoon Press
ReleaseDate	2015-03-16
Studio	Twisted Spoon Press

A Gothic Soul

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