Configuring Memory in Czech Family Sagas: The Art of Forgetting in Generic Tradition explores how literature may configure family memory. Family sagas can be viewed as a structure helping us to share our memories. Special attention will be paid to crucial generic motifs within family sagas, as well as to elements of the narrative structure, which hold powerful memory-forming potential. The book proves that this potential can be fulfilled in two ways. The genre under analysis tends to strengthen the bad family memory and consider it as a burden, and to encourage one to forget their family past. Despite the prevalence of the saga as a cultural form right across mass media, the literary genre of the family saga has not attracted intensive critical acclaim. Readers of this book will not only learn more about the genre of family saga but also be encouraged to reflect on their own family memories.

Marcin Filipowicz is associate professor at Univerzita Hradec Králové

Introduction: Why Memory? Why Family Sagas?

Chapter 1: Literature, Memory, Genre

Chapter 2: The Memory of the House

Chapter 3: The Memory of Family Rituals

Chapter 4: Memory Hidden in the Family Narrative

Chapter 5: Family Memory and the Logic of the Narrative

Conclusion