Michael Cunningham in the Czech Republic

Abstract

The article explores the reception of Michael Cunningham in the Czech Republic, as seen through Czech afterwords to his novels. While Cunningham started his career as a minor gay writer writing for his friends dying of AIDS, he became an international celebrity after being awarded the Pulitzer Prize and PEN/Faulkner Award for his 1998 novel The Hours. This novel was also the first one translated into Czech in 2002, followed by all his novels with the exception of the first one. Cunningham has transcended the limiting category of gay literature and has become a typical post-gay writer, yet he has not renounced his roots but makes use of them in his fiction and proudly brings the experience up whenever he can. Cunningham has thus become the author of (post-)gay literature most translated into Czech. He has also greatly contributed to the fact that homosexuality in contemporary literature seems to be taken for granted, hardly requiring attention.