Writing film, writing literature : new Czech translations of four Ingmar Bergman's film short stories

Abstract

From the narratological point of view, the term story refers to the actual chronology of events in a narrative that is independent from its representation created by a concrete medium. Czech readers still possibly know better the film interpretations of Bergman’s short stories, but have now, thanks to the publishing house Kniha Zlín, got the possibility to acquaint themselves with four of his so called ‘film narratives’ published under the title Hodina vlků [Hour of the Wolf]. Apart from the short story of the same name (written 1966), the compilation contains texts called Shame (1967), The Passion of Anna (1968) and thematically related From the Life of Marionettes (1979). These texts came into existence during the same period as the films to which they served as a kind of manuscripts or textual outlines. The compilation was translated into Czech by Zbyněk Černík, who is also the author of the afterword that briefly introduces the context of their creation. The first film narrative Hour of the Wolf is from the included texts disputably the most literarily experimental. Although it contains notes that make its connection with the planned movie evident (such as ‘From here on, the text will be accompanied with film pictures ad libitum’, p. Writing Film, Writing Literature: New Czech Translations of Four Ingmar Bergman’s Film Short Stories