Guest of the ilb 2002
Iva Procházková
was born in 1953 in Olomouc, Moravia. From
an early age she realized that political reality can impair
one’s own free development. As her father, Jan Procházková,
belonged to the "undesired" authors of the "Prague Spring", Iva’s early prose
and theatre pieces weren’t allowed to be published in her homeland and
her applications to universities were also repeatedly rejected.
In 1993 Iva Procházková and her husband, the theatre director Ivan
Pokorny, fled to the West where they lived in Vienna, Konstanz and
Bremen. Iva Procházková worked on her children’s and young
people’s books and wrote pieces for the puppet theatre with which the
couple went on tour. Today Iva Procházková lives as freelance
writer with her family in Prague and additionally works for television
and with German and Czech theatres.
Shortly after emigrating, Iva Procházková published the children’s book
'Der Sommer hat Eselsohren' in Germany in 1984. The story of
Dusan and Johanka who experience exciting adventures during the school
holidays, was put on the shortlist for the 'German Young People’s
Literature Prize'. Already in this children’s book, the author
shows sensitive feeling towards the longings of the adolescents, their
difficulties with adults and with growing up. She shows her young
heroes as curious, sensitive and sometimes defiant personalities full
of energy.
The main character of her book 'Die Zeit der geheimen Wünsche' (1988)
for which the author won the 'German Young People’s Literature Prize'
in 1989, is also like this – Kapka, a high-spirited and courageous
figure who discovers the new people and new surroundings of the old
town of Prague after moving there. Through the arrest of her
father, who was a regime critical sculptor, the young girl is
confronted with the conflicts of the adult world. Kapka’s story
is also the story of the end of childhood. Alongside a humorous
call to openness, the ability to be critical and humanity, Iva
Procházková’s stories convey hope and courage. This is also the
case in her second young people’s book 'Soví zpěv' (1995). In
this "negative Utopia", the subject of which is life in the city of
Bremen and the destinies of its inhabitants during a natural
catastrophe in 2046, the author describes how 17-year-old Armin
confronts a world in which everything is predestined
and where there is hardly any room for closeness with family and
friends. Mineral wells, compost power stations and solar
collectors feign invulnerability and autonomy. In more than a
hundred thought fragments, dialogue sequences, course protocols,
memories and in-between remarks, the author documents Armin’s attempts,
in a rationally organized world, at finding a place of security and
answers to questions to which the personal computer advisor can’t help.
In Procházkovás novel for young people, “Wir
treffen uns, wenn alle weg sind” (2007, Engl: We’ll meet when
everyone’s away), which was singled out with the
Friedrich-Gerstäcker-Preis, the author portrays the story of the
orphaned boy Mojmr Demeter, who looks after an old woman in the
mountains outside Prague while the city is afflicted with a virus
epidemic. When he meets a girl, Jessica, one of the few survivors of
the catastrophe, he learns how important friendship is – for survival
and the “feelgood-effect of affection, courage and tolerance – the true
qualities of life” (Literaturen.)
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