Volcanoes and Tracks

The works of Alena Nádvorníková (1942) are marked by lightness with which they touch on various taboo subjects, be it subtle eroticism or detraction of the woman body. Of primary importance for the author are the internal impulses, intuition and chance events, which – more than the body – keep us in touch with the outside world. Her poetry opens up a space of dream memory and dramatic clashes between the internal and external worlds, which enable a spontaneous flow of thoughts and associations. The words are left at the mercy of conflicts, faults, convulsive accidents, through which the woman’s world seeks its way out, its expression, its identity. Compared to the previous collections, Volcanoes and Tracks is surprisingly nostalgic, lyrical and contemplative in tone and is rightly regarded as the greatest achievement in Nádvorníková’s recent work.