SOURCE: Gibian, George. “The Poetics of Prague: Literary Images of a City.” In The Achievement of Josef Škvorecký, pp. 171-81. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994.

This essay considers how Seifert's poetry uses and reflects upon the Czech capital Prague.

The action in Josef Škvorecký's most famous novel, The Cowards, takes place not in Prague, but in a small town very reminiscent of his own Náchod. Nevertheless, the presence of the capital is very palpable. For the young heroes of the novel, Prague is a magnet gleaming somewhere in their future. They look forward to going to Prague now the war is nearly over and the Germans are gone. Prague is the focus of their yearnings and aspirations, as Moscow was for Chekhov's three sisters. But the Prague of The Cowards holds very different promises from those of Moscow in the Russian play: the young Czech boys...