Literary Prague

Last weekend I was lucky enough to jet off to Prague in the Czech Republic. With buildings that are centuries old and the Vltava River flowing straight through the middle, Prague is a truly beautiful and charming city. It has often been the centre of political turmoil and yet its buildings stand largely unbruised besides the constant stream of graffiti.

Prague is a cultural hub with the Rudolfilim, which is home to the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Estates Theatre, where Mozart's Don Giovani debuted. Kanye West and Rihanna have both filmed music videos in the city and Prague has also played host to many film sets, including Mission Impossible and the Chronicles of Narnia.

I, of course, however, will be looking at the literature side of things and the most famous literary figure to have come out of Prague is probably Franz Kafka. Kafka was born in 1883 into a middle-class Jewish family in Prague, Bohemia, when it was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. he house he was born in was situated on Prague's Old Town Square and is now home to a permanent Kafka exhibition. At this time, it is thought that around 26,000 Jews lived in the city. Following World War 2, however, the community has declined to 1,500.

Kafka himself died young, at only 40 years old, but during World War 2, his sisters were deported by the Nazis, along with their families, to the Łódź Ghetto. They subsequently died either in the Ghetto or in concentration camps, including Theresienstadt and Auschwitz.

Kafka was educated at the Altstädter Deutsches Gymnasium and the building still stands today. He later went on to study Chemistry at Prague's Charles-Ferdinand University before changing course to Law. Kafka never actually wrote specifically about Prague in any of his short stories or novels but it is felt that the city, although unnamed, is very much present in his writing. Most of his works were published postumously, despite his last request: "Everything I leave behind me ... in the way of diaries, manuscripts, letters, sketches, and so on, [is] to be burned unread."

Another author to have lived in Prague is American writer, Marcia Davenport, whose house and plaque I saw on my walk around the city.