Die räumlichen Grenzen der Exil-Inszenierung und die metaphorischen Figurationen des J. A. Comenius in der tschechischen Literatur des 19. Jahrhunderts

In the nineteenth century, as a result of number of sociocultural changes, the exile as a historically variable phenomenon experienced a significant reconceptualization, while at the same time its literary representations also went through changes. In this period, models trying to implement the exile in the narrative of national history show symptomatic differences and specific limits in comparison with earlier models or with models formed in the course of the twentieth century. The spatial contexts of the national narrative, which coincided with the physical absences of émigrés from the national area, were in themselves limiting. (Literary) concepts of exile therefore concentrated primarily on the outlook of those who remained behind. As far as the representation of an émigré himself was concerned, literature created a number of main model situations which "returned" him to his nationally spatial context. A reflection of the prominent post-White Mountain exile Jan Amos Comenius presented a specific possibility that overcame the limits of the spatially limited national narratives by reference to Comenius's writings which (unlike their author) were physically accessible in the Bohemian Lands – albeit to a limited degree. Distinctive cognitive metaphors (light in darkness, the labyrinth, depth of security, etc.) were also gathered from these writings, and around these an image of Comenius stabilised, in close conjunction with the topic of exile.