Spatial and Class Tensions in Jan Neruda’s Prague Stories
Jan Neruda, one of the founding figures of 19th-century Czech literature, portrays the Malá Strana (Little Quarter) district of Prague in his work Prague Stories not merely as a backdrop, but as an active element shaping social relations. In Neruda’s narratives, streets, houses, and public spaces become spaces where class differences, status struggles, and the tensions created by the modernization process are concretized. In this context, space assumes a function that both makes visible and reproduces the social positions of individuals.
Streets: Visibility, Control, and the Public Sphere of the Lower Classes
In Neruda’s Prague, the streets are spaces where the daily lives of the lower and lower-middle classes are displayed. The streets of Malá Strana are narrow, intertwined, and possess a closed network of social control. This situation evokes a surveillance regime that can be explained by Michel Foucault’s concept of “micro-power”; individuals are constantly exposed to each other’s gaze and judgment (Foucault, 1977).
The street, while a temporary passageway for the upper classes, is the center of life for the lower classes. Craftsmen, petty clerks, widows, and the unemployed gain their public visibility on these streets. However, this visibility also brings with it a fragile status: economic decline, a moral failing, or gossip can quickly transform into social exclusion through the street (Neruda, 1878/2007).
In this respect, the street can be read in terms of Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of “symbolic capital.” Individuals’ reputation is determined more by social perception and recognition than by material capital (Bourdieu, 1986). Reputation lost on the street is the most visible form of class decline.
Houses: Architectural Expression of Class Boundaries
In Neruda’s stories, houses function as an architectural and internal expression of class position. The houses in Malá Strana are mostly old, dilapidated, and shared by multiple families. This reflects a way of life where private space is constantly violated and individual privacy is weakened.
Domestic spaces symbolize the economic power and social prestige of the characters. Narrow rooms, old furniture, and shared areas imply the material deprivation of the lower classes, as well as their limited social mobility. As Gaston Bachelard noted, the home is not only a place of shelter but also a spatial reflection of the individual’s existential condition (Bachelard, 1958). In Neruda, this reflection often manifests as confinement and stagnation.
Houses belonging to the upper classes, on the other hand, are generally excluded from the narrative or depicted at a distance. This absence shows that class distinction is established not only through economic means but also through narrative exclusion.
Public Spaces: Unequal Encounters and Symbolic Hierarchy
Public spaces such as squares, churchyards, and government offices are places where different classes meet but are not equalized. In Neruda’s Prague, public spaces are depicted as areas where inter-class contact is possible, but the hierarchy is not suspended.
Bureaucratic spaces, in particular, are alienating for the lower classes. Petty officials and impoverished citizens are constantly aware of their subordinate position in these spaces. As Henri Lefebvre stated, space is socially produced and contains power relations (Lefebvre, 1974). Neruda’s public spaces are also literary representations of this production.
In Jan Neruda’s Prague Stories, streets, houses, and public spaces are places where class tensions intensify and become visible in 19th-century Prague. Streets function as the scene of the struggle for surveillance and prestige, houses as the scene of economic confinement and class stagnation, and public spaces as the scene of unequal encounters. Neruda transforms space from a passive backdrop into a social actor that reproduces and reveals the class structure. In this respect, Prague Stories can be considered one of the texts that establishes the space-class relationship early and powerfully in modern urban literature.
References
Bachelard, G. (1958). La poétique de l’espace. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
Bourdieu, P. (1986). “The Forms of Capital.” In J. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education. New York: Greenwood.
Foucault, M. (1977). Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Pantheon.
Lefebvre, H. (1974). La production de l’espace. Paris: Anthropos.
Neruda, J. (1878/2007). Prague Stories (Povídky malostranské). Trans. various editions.