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Philip Roth made no secret of his great admiration for the work of Franz Kafka, which ultimately brought him to Prague in the 1970s and fostered his interest in Czech culture. This contribution focuses on the reception of the personality and work of Franz Kafka in Philip Roth’s non-fiction writing. The first section focuses on Roth’s essential Kafkaesque essay ‘“I Always Wanted You to Admire My Fasting”; or Looking at Kafka’ from 1973, in which Roth combines an empathetic portrait of his favourite author with a counterfactual vision of Kafka’s life, in which the author of the Trial and the Castle did not die of tuberculosis and instead fled from the Holocaust to the United States, where he became Roth’s uncle. In the second section, based on Roth’s dialogue with Ivan Klíma from 1990, we document how Kafka serves Roth in his reflections on the position and role of the writer in society.

The study deals with the thematisation of Jewishness in the inter-war prose writing of four authors from assimilated Jewish families: Richard Weiner (born 1884), František Langer (born 1888), Karel Poláček (born 1892) and Egon Hostovský (born 1908). Whereas the prose of the last-named author has received considerable attention in contemporary literary history, in the case of the remaining authors their Jewishness remains on the periphery of scholarly interest, or is mentioned in works of a synthetic character. A detailed reading of the work of all three prose writers reveals that for them Jewish culture did not represent an essential literary theme, and indeed they barely mentioned it whatsoever. An exception relates to the abundant references to anti-Semitism in Karel Poláček’s cycle of novels about the provincial town, which can be explained among other factors by the aggravated political situation in the second half of the 1930s.

Participants of a debate concerning engagement in literature (parti cularly in poetry) that went though in some Czech cultural and literary magazines in 2012-2013 often used the category of freedom. Using this debate as an example this article follows a pattern in a public, also intellectual, discourse, in which the notion of freedom serves for defense of individualistic positions against a supposed peril of community values perceived assubjugation of an author as an individual artist. In the search of a potential remedy for the polarization of notions the article shifts towards the role of a recipient in the process of reading.

První kniha Kosmovy Kroniky Čechů vykazuje výraznou anomálii. Kosmas porušil kontinuální chronologickou kompozici první knihy a při líčení počátků christianizace Čech ve 2. polovině 9. století vložil mezi data knížete Bořivoje I. a jeho ženy Ludmily rozsáhlou epizodu o smrti luckého knížete Vlastislava. Je možné, že nejstarší český kronikář nepřímo – ale vědomě – upozornil na pravý původ kněžny a pozdější světice Ludmily, o kterém se dodnes vedou spory. The first book of Kosma’s Chronicle of Bohemia shows a significant anomaly. Kosmas violated the continuous chronological composition of the first book and, describing the beginnings of the Christianization of Bohemia in the second half of the 9th century, inserted an extensive episode between the dates of Prince Bořivoj I and his wife Ludmila about the death of the lucky prince Vlastislav. It is possible that the oldest Czech chronicler indirectly – but consciously – drew attention to the true origin of Princess and later saint Ludmila, about whom there are still disputes.

Autofictions and memoirs about growing up in late socialism have proliferated in Czech as well as in other postsocialist Eastern European literatures. These retrospective texts are often tinged with nostalgia and infused with irony and humour. Two of the most popular texts of this genre in the Czech Republic are Irena Dousková’s autofictional books Hrdý Budžes [B. Proudew] and Oněgin byl Rusák [Onegin Was a Rusky]. The Czech author writes about growing-up in a non-conformist family dealing with everyday life in socialist Czechoslovakia. After discussing Dousková’s books as autofiction the article will take a closer look at the poetics of childhood autofictions and their contribution to cultures of remembering socialism in comparison to autobiographies. It will discuss the ways how writing about childhood creates a specific socialist identity through scarcity, ingenuity, and working with/against restraints and the way humour is used to transmit difficult memories.

The last two decades have seen a rising interest in the Holocaust and the expulsion of ethnic Germans after World War II in Czech literature. Novels by Hana Androníková, Radka Denemarková, Magdalena Platzová, Kateřina Tučková, and Jáchym Topol share a quest for a new poetics of remembrance. Informed by contemporary discussions about Czech memory politics, these novels are characterised by spectral visions of Germans and Jews alike, a dichotomy of trauma and nostalgia, and an understanding of Czech history as postcatastrophically entangled and thus calling for multidirectional forms of remembrance. In this respect, literary memorial forms compensate for the absence of other memorial forms addressing these topics through a transnational lens. The interaction of different historical points of view is achieved by a time frame extending from the war to the present day and stressing the intercultural dynamics of Czechs, Jews, and Germans retroactively. In order to illustrate this entanglement, authors make use of popular genres, such as romance, and create texts shaped by genre fluidity, memory theory, documentary practices, and concepts of transnationality.

The intention of this paper is to argue the thesis that the literary texts and essays written by Lubomír Martínek are dominated by the notion of space and experience. Both categories are defined in the author’s essay Nomad’s Land that represents the framework for Martínek’s understanding of the spatial experience. The study is divided into three analytical parts in which Martínek’s concept, paratexts, relations between the characters and space are explored in the light of the main thesis argued in the paper. The analysis is preceded by the theoretical remarks about the literary space and poetics of experience. Finally, an opening to further interpretations of Martínek’s texts is introduced in the conclusion.

In this commentary, we will limit ourselves to presenting the reception of Czech literature in Poland and Polish literature in the Czech Republic in the year 2018. Czech and Polish literature reaches its readers across their respective borders in several ways: via translations of books by well-known and esteemed writers; through representatives of the younger generation; and as translations of prose and poetry published in magazines. The reception of Polish and Czech literature has been very positive; specifically, there is a growing interest among Polish readers in Czech literary offerings.

После падения коммунистического режима чешское диссидентское движение участвовало в создании новых эго-документов, отсылающих к интерпретации социалистического прошлого. В статье данная проблематика представлена на примере двух мемуарных диссидентских текстов. Речь идёт о life story актрисы Власты Храмостовой и о путевых заметках писательницы Эды Крисеовой. Данные саморефлексивные мемуары являются сознательно конструируемым речевым актом защиты памяти и культурного взаимодействия с инакомыслием. Их мышление, сформировавшееся в диссидентской среде, сосредоточенной на необходимости быть человеком «духовным» (Я. Паточка) и участвующим в общественной деятельности, представляет собой тенденцию в чешской литературе рубежа тысячелетий, когда снова обсуждалось участие в литературе с целью «исправить» интерпретацию прошлого, особенно 50-х гг. ХХ в. и периода «нормализации». Методологическая база исследования основана на трудах М. Альбвакса и П. Рикёра.

The author of the present study deals with the contemporary state of memoir literature based on the analysis of some recent Czech and Slovak memoirs containing a spеcific strategy of the heterogeneous layers of confesisons and preachings. The problem of contemporary memoir texts is connected with the position of the memoirist in the society, his/her courage and openness. The author’s typology of the memoir literature is based on the three-level structure (theme, structure and genre, narrative strategy). He prefers to call it memoir literature аs its structure is very heterogeneous, and the fear of the memoirist, his anxiety and aversion to express too radical views lead to soft focus, uncertainty, evasiveness, the lack of clear opinions – these are the characteristic features of contemporary memoir literature as a reflection of the state of the world and the human of the second decade of the 21 century. Due to this, the confessions and preachings have been realised in a specific manner. These features are being demonstrated at the works written by Czech and Slovak writers, significant personalities of culture, politicians, artists etc. The modern and postmodern memoir literature realizes the confessions and preachings in a specific semi-hidden undercurrent which is being manifested at the example of a triple structure (memoirs, portraits, textual illustrations as attachments) of the memoirs by the Slovak literary critic, hungarologist, comparatist, and translator Rudolf Chmel.

When analyzing literary fiction, most cultural sociologists still accept the well-established boundaries between the literary and the sociological, thus leaving literature stripped of its aesthetic qualities. Instead, I propose a new approach that focuses on the process of meaning-making as it occurs within the interaction between the reader and the novel in a given socio-historical setting. This allows analysts to capture those aspects of understanding social experience which are usually ‘lost in translation’ between fictional and sociological genres. My major claims are that, first, when referring to social experience, both sociological and literary texts employ aesthetic devices to mediate understanding for the reader. Second, within the literary genre, the understanding of social experience relies much more on the emotional engagement of the reader through a reading process facilitated by these aesthetic devices. Third, to benefit methodologically and epistemologically from the lyrical understanding of social experience mediated by literature, cultural sociologists must be particularly sensitive to the subtlety and ambiguity of meanings mediated by the aesthetic. The methodological advantage gained is the analysis of deeper cultural meanings grounded in, yet also going beyond, an emotionally and existentially experienced social reality, which is intersubjectively shared and filtered by various groups of readers and cultural intermediaries. The epistemological advantage gained by overcoming the assumed inferiority of literature is that cultural sociological research unlocks a whole new area for understanding the meanings of social life, especially its non-discursive dimensions. The research model I propose for a new sociology of literature adopts the landscape of meaning concept developed by Isaac Reed in combination with the aesthetic structuralism of Czech linguist Jan Mukařovský. This model will be demonstrated through an interpretive analysis of the Czech novel Sestra (published in English as City Sister Silver) by Jáchym Topol.

In numerous collected source materials from the 1950s, it is necessary to distinguish texts created in the works of authors persecuted by the communist regime e.g. Catholic writers and those related to popular movement, from the authors deliberately abandoning official circulation e.g. supporters of the concept of total realism, embarrassing poetry and collage of various literary genres. Activities of the opposition in the second half of the 1950s resulted in the first attempts of culture liberalization. At that time literature has influenced film and theater opening up the way to the Prague Spring in the late 1960s. V četných pramenech z 50. let je třeba rozlišovat texty vzniklé v rámci tvorby autorů pronásledovaných komunistickým režimem, například katolických spisovatelů a těch, kteří měli blízko k lidovému hnutí, od autorů záměrně opouštějících oficiální oběh, například příznivců konceptu totálního realismu, trapné poezie a směsi různých literárních žánrů. Aktivity opozice vedly ve druhé polovině 50. let k prvním pokusům o liberalizaci kultury. Literatura byla tehdy ovlivněna filmem a divadlem, které otevřely cestu k tzv. Pražskému jaru na konci 60. let.

Ivo Harák věnuje ve své studii pozornost posledním vydaným sbírkám básnířky Karly Erbové. Tato spisovatelka letos oslavila 85 let svého života. A to v plné práci na svém díle. Které je známé také čtenářům v zahraničí, například v Polsku. Autor se snaží postihnout především duchovní kořeny a postupnou proměnu poezie jubilující básnířky.

The report of The Leipzig Book Fair 2019, written by students, describes the experiences of The Leipzig Book Fair, his history and current trends (Women and Literature) with focus on the host country Czech Republic.

The following paper is based on the concept of literature and mediality of memory (Astrid Erll) which deals with the function of literary texts in creating and maintaining collective memory. Using these methodological incentives, it focuses on the determination and characterization of ways in which Czech literary works co-create and preserve the memory of the 20th century Hlucin Region, as well as, vice versa, the ways involved in suppressing some layers of memory and oblivion. The area described is selected, inter alia, because of its discontinuous and multi-layered memory influenced by geopolitical changes in Central Europe. The study thus provides a more detailed view of how artistic literature, as a medium of collective memory, can function within the phenomena of the so-called abused memory and memory work (Paul Ricoeur).

This article is devoted to show the common grounds of Czech and other European literature. Images of birds have an imposing tradition of use in Czech literature. They are characterized by a variety of meanings and history of existence. There are both traditional and everyday folklore images, such as mythologeme of raven for the first one, and geese for the second, which have different semantic workloads. Discussion of the image of birds in the Czech literature is the basement of conclusions about the common ground that brings Czech and European literature together. Moreover, it also gives us more details about Czech national identity, the specifics of its literary schools and movements and the originality of the author’s vision of the world.

Treatises on four ultimate truths about the human condition in 16th and 17th century Czech literature an outline of issuesCzech literature of the 16th and 17th century was for readers of that time an important source of admonishment concerning death and afterlife. Manuals about the art of dying — ars moriendi books — provided ample advice on how to die a “good death”. Besides that, their authors focused also on other issues of ultimate importance for human beings, i.e. death, God’s judgment, heaven and hell. The aim of the treatises was to make readers lead a good life through constant pondering over death and the uncertainty of the soul’s fate in the afterlife. Descriptions of various tortures suffered by the damned in hell were meant to frighten sinners, make them repent and change their lives. Descriptions of heaven, on the other hand, were supposed to lure people into doing good. According to the Catholic dogma, after death, the soul can go to heaven, hell or purgatory. The Protestant Reformation rejected purgatory as wishful human fiction, and returned to a traditional dualistic view of the afterlife. Traktaty o ctyřech poslednich věcech clověka v ceske literatuře 16. a 17. stoleti nacrt problematikyCeska naboženska vzdělavaci literatura 16. a 17. stoleti představovala pro ctenaře důležitý zdroj pouceni o smrti a posmrtnem životě. Přirucky sťastneho umirani — knihy ars moriendi přinasely rady, jak ma dobra smrt vypadat. Kromě teto problematiky se autoři zabývali tematy souvisejicimi s poslednimi věcmi clověka, to je smrti, božim soudem, peklem a nebem. Cilem traktatů bylo přimět ctenaře k dobremu životu prostřednictvim myslenky na smrt a nejistý posmrtný osud duse. Liceni pekelných trestů mělo vyvolat u hřisniků hrůzu, přimět je, aby změnili sve chovani a nastoupili cestu pokani. Popisy raje měly lakat a přitahovat. Podle katoliků duse po smrti mohla jit do nebe, pekla nebo ji cekal ocistěc, kde měla smýt hřichy a pote vstoupit na nebesa. Reformace odmitla uceni o ocistci, a proto na něm protestansti autoři zdůrazňovali lidský výmysl.

The image of Jan Hus’s death in literary and film worksThe article shows, on selected examples from Czech literature and film, different images of the Czech reformer’s death. The fundamental texts of this article are the testimonies of two witnesses of that event: a member of Hus’s escort, Peter from Mladoňovice, and a burgher from Konstantz, Ulrich Rychental. Confesional dependent visions, that both of them were creating, initiated two traditions in the perception of Jan Hus: as a martyr and as a heretic. The vision of Mladoňovic dominated thinking about Hus in Czech society until the beginning of the recatholization. During the 19th century it was also supported by historism typical for the National Revival epoch F. Palacký, Dějiny naroda ceskeho, persisted in journalism, literature, art and, after some modifications, operated until the middle of the 20th century O. Vavra, Jan Hus. Later literary and film productions E. Kantůrkova, J. Svoboda, Jan Hus take into account Rychental’s testimony, so the one-sided picture of the death of the Bethlehem preacher gained a new dimension. Literarni a filmove obrazy smrti Jana HusaClanek na vybraných přikladech z ceske literatury a filmu ukazuje dva různe obrazy smrti ceskeho reformatora. Zakladnimi texty jsou zpravy dvou ocitých svědků udalosti: clena Husova doprovodu Petra z Mladoňovic a kostnickeho měsťana Ulricha Richentala. Konfesijně podminěne obrazy, ktere oba atoři kreuji, stoji na pocatku dvou rodicich se tradic v pojimani Husa: jako mucednika a jako kaciře. V ceskem prostředi dominoval až do pocatku rekatolizace Mladoňovicův obraz, který byl v 19. stoleti převzat obrozeneckým dějepisectvim F. Palacký, Dějiny naroda ceskeho a nasledně publicistikou, literaturou a výtvarným uměnim a v různých modifikacich přetrval zhruba do poloviny 20. stoleti O. Vavra, Jan Hus. Pozdějsi literarni a filmova produkce E. Kantůrkova, J. Svoboda, Jan Hus zohledňuje take Richentalovo svědectvi, cimž do te doby jednostranný obraz smrti betlemskeho kazatele ziskal novou dimenzi.

Sensual images of death in short stories by Richard Weiner selected examplesThe author of the article analyzes a selection of stories by Richard Weiner with regard to the leading theme — a sensual image of death. Attention is drawn to polisensuality of expression and the construction of the world depicted on the basis of sensual antinomies, e.g. silence/sound, movement/stillness, dead/alive, visible/invisible. The author refers to selected short stories from Weiner’s collections: Netečný divák 1917, Lítice 1918, Škleb 1919, and Lazebník 1929.Smyslná tvář smrti v povídkách Richarda Weinera ve vybraných příkladechAutorka článku analyzuje vybrané povídky Richarda Weinera z pohledu úvodního motivu, jímž je smyslná tvář smrti. Věnuje pozornost mnohasmyslnosti výpovědi a stavbě světa představeného na základu smyslových antinomií jako například: ticho–zvuk, pohyb–klid, mrtvé–živé, viditelné–neviditelné. Autorka se odvolává na vybrané povídky Weinera ze sbírek: Netečný divák 1917, Lítice 1918, Škleb 1919 i Lazebník 1929.

FACES OF AUTOCRACY IN CZECH LITERARY DYSTOPIASThe paper deals with the phenomenon of dystopia in Czech literature before 1989. The main aim of the article is to present some similiar views on totalitarian power and its influence on the individual in Czech novels and short stories: Datum narození nula by Ludmila Freiová, Poselství pro Agla Mathona by Ondřej Neff, Utopie, nejlepší verze by Ivan Kmínek and Maso by Martin Harníček. The purpose of the paper was also to show how in the authors’ visions of autocratic states, administration is taking control over ordinary people and what kind of tools it uses to manipulate them: terror, self-censorship or various addictions.

The article examines the unauthorised stage adaptation of Alois Jirasek’s novel Psohlavci (Dogheads) produced by Jan Baptist Kuhnl (1849–1904), a dramatist, translator, and one of the earliest plagiarists in the late nineteenth-century Czech literature who in 1899 adapted and without authorisation staged the play Jan Sladký Kozina (published as a book in 1901). Kuhnl’s adaptation was completed without the permission of Jirasek, who intervened against the play’s illegal enactment at Svanda’s Theatre in Smichov through his lawyer Ladislav Klumpar (1863–1930), an imperial deputy. Jirasek won the 1899 trial by virtue of Act #197/1895, which continued the 1846 Imperial Patent, defining the nature and realisation of artistic creations (whose wording was partially incorporated into the Copyright Act of independent Czechoslovakia). In 1920, the play Jan Sladký Kozina was republished on behalf of Kuhnl’s descendants, his widow Marie Kuhnlova and daughter Marie Luisa Kuhnlova (1891–1945), a translator from Romance languages who only modernised the original 1899 epigonic adaptation for amateur actors. The second lawsuit in 1921 was not only Jirasek’s victory but it fully demonstrated that copyright was a relevant manifestation of intellectual intangible assets which must be legally protected. From a literary perspective, the case offers an interesting illustration of the contemporary concept of plagiarism as uninventive imitation, borrowing “thoughtlessly the whole structure, storyline and even individual elements” of a work.

U središtu je istraživanja recepcija češke neoficijelne književnosti među čitateljima u Hrvatskoj u razdoblju od praškoga proljeća i vojne intervencije zemalja Varšavskoga ugovora u Čehoslovačkoj u kolovozu 1968. do pada komunizma u srednjoj i istočnoj Europi na prijelomu osamdesetih i devedesetih godina 20. stoljeća te mogući utjecaj tog dijela češke književnosti na hrvatsku književnost istoga razdoblja. Disertacija pokazuje u kojoj su mjeri fikcionalna i nefikcionalna djela češke samizdatske i emigrantske književne scene u analiziranome razdoblju bila dostupna čitateljima u Hrvatskoj, na koji su način bila prihvaćena među njima, je li tijekom toga razdoblju dolazilo do promjena u recepciji te u kojem su se smjeru te promjene kretale. Istraživanje obuhvaća i analizu prisutnosti drama čeških neoficijelnih dramatičara na repertoarima kazališta diljem Hrvatske, kritičku recepciju djela češke samizdatske i emigrantske produkcije, njihovu recepciju u hrvatskoj znanosti o književnosti te utjecaj toga korpusa na hrvatsku književnost postmodernizma. Recepcija češke samizdatske i emigrantske književnosti u hrvatskoj je kulturi nedovoljno istražena. Vjerujemo da disertacija upotpunjuje spoznaje o hrvatsko-češkim književnim i kulturnim vezama u drugoj polovici 20. stoljeća. The period of normalization in Czechoslovakia started after the military intervention of the Warsaw Pact countries in August 1968. The military intervention was the response of the official regimes of the Eastern Bloc countries to the reform movements that developed in the Czechoslovak Communist Party and, later, during the 1960s, in the whole Czechoslovak society. A consequence of the breakdown of reform movements was a ban of public action on all persons who participated in the reform movement. Censorship served as one of the strongest tools for shaping the society in Czechoslovakia after 1968 and expelling influential intellectuals from the public. At the beginning of the 1970s, Czech literature was divided into official, unofficial and, so-called, gray zone. The official part of Czech literature belonged to the writers who continued to publish their works in the state publishing houses. Unofficial writers published in samizdat and emigration, and their plays were performed in the theaters abroad. The grey scene was composed of authors working in both fields, depending on the changing circumstances and their propensity to compromise. Although the socio-political circumstances hindered the development of Czech culture, art and literature during the period of normalization – they were constantly controlled by the official regime through censorship measures – one of the most difficult periods of Czech history developed one of the brightest periods of Czech art. The literature of that time was gaining enormous attention from the public outside of the country, led by the names of Milan Kundera, one of the most popular writers in Europe in the 1980s, and a dissident and playwright Václav Havel. The research concentrates on the reception of the Czech unofficial literature by readers in Croatia between the Prague Spring and military intervention of the Warsaw Pact countries in Czechoslovakia in August 1968 and the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe at the end of the eighties and the beginning of the nineties. The research includes a possible impact of the unofficial Czech literature on Croatian literature of the same period. The dissertation demonstrates the extent to which fictional and non-fictional works of Czech samizdat and emigrant literature scene in the analyzed period was available to readers in Croatia, the way in which it was accepted among readers, whether there was a change in reception during that period, and what the direction of that change was. The research shows that the reception of the unofficial Czech literature is realized in all three manifestations according to the classification of Manfred Schmeling – the passive, the reproductive and the productive one. The thesis complements the knowledge on the Croatian-Czech literary and cultural connections in the second half of the 20th century. The bibliography of the translations included in this analysis has been compiled according to the library databases of two libraries: Nacionalna i sveučilišna knjižnica (Zagreb, Republic of Croatia) and Národní knihovna České Republiky (Prague, Czech Republic), supplemented by the exile issues of the digital exile library database Libri Prohibiti. Also, research involves the analysis of the reception of Czech unofficial literature in periodicals and magazines Republika, 15 dana, Dubrovnik, Pitanja, Revija, Rival, Vjesnik u srijedu, Vidik, Forum, Gordogan, Quorum, Oko, Polet, Književna smotra, Prolog, Novi prolog, Danas, and daily newspapers Večernji list and Vjesnik. In the introductory part of the research, four hypotheses were put forward, and, ultimately, confirmed: - the works of the unofficial Czech literature in the analyzed period were well received by readers in Croatia - readers in Croatia haf more access to works by writers who worked in exile than to those who self-published in Czechoslovakia - Croatian publishers, by publishing works of the unofficial Czech literature, primarily listened to market demands of the 1980s - towards the end of the 1980s, there was a change in the intensity of reception in the fields of publishing and theatre, and in the critical reception due to a new constellation of sociopolitical relations in Yugoslavia and Croatia. During the twenty years of normalization in Czechoslovakia, publishing houses in Yugoslavia continuously published Czech exile and samizdat literary works. The intensification of the publishing activity was noticeable during the 1980s, especially from 1984 to 1988 when, in just four years, 56% of all books were published. In the whole period of normalization, 81% of all published books in Yugoslavia belong to exile production of the Czech unofficial scene. Due to a unique market and the country they shared, Croatian readers are strongly focused on the editions published by Belgrade and Sarajevo publishers. The translations of Czech unofficial authors were also published in Ljubljana and Skopje. However, due to a language barrier, readers in Croatia were not introduced to these publications. The largest and most reputable Yugoslav publishers published the translations of Czech unofficial authors in their market-leading editions. The most translated and published texts among readers in Croatia are novels. Novels and short stories of Milan Kundera and Josef Škvorecký make up more than 86% of the total prose book publications, most of them in the most successful publisher’s editions. Milan Kundera’s novel Žert (Croatian Šala, English The Joke) was published eight times in Zagreb, Belgrade and Sarajevo from 1968 to 1990, and was often taken as the starting point of the evaluation of the critical reception of Kundera’s work. Due to the fact that Croatian libraries were not digitized during the 1970s and 1980s, it was not possible to obtain information on the borrowing of publications by unofficial authors. However, the lists of the most read and best-selling books in Croatian libraries and bookstores that can be found in newspapers from the 1980s often contain titles written by unofficial Czech authors. The reception of these authors in Croatia was not delayed during the two analyzed decades. Most of the translations of Zagreb, Sarajevo and Belgrade publishing houses were published within a very short period of time, after the first issues were published. Poetry translations were mostly published by magazines such as Republika, Forum, 15 dana and Rival. The only Czech poet whose collection of poetry was published was the 1984 Nobel Prize laureate for literature, Jaroslav Seifert. Poetry provides a greater distance from reality than novels and drama, so unofficial Czech poets in the 1970s and the 1980s in Croatia and writers who published their works freely in Czechoslovakia often published side by side. Due to the fact that the primary area of expression of dramatic literature is theater, we note a small number of print editions of plays written by unofficial playwrights. The theater reception of unofficial writers grew extremely during the 1980s, which corresponded to the situation in the publishing market. Plays by Václav Havel, Pavel Kohout and Milan Kundera account for as much as 75% of all premiere titles. These plays, and plays written by other playwrights less known to Croatian audience, were performed in national theaters in Zagreb, Rijeka and Split, but also in g Teatar ITD in Zagreb, aimed mostly at students, and a touring theatre Kazalište u gostima which, in 1974, began its work with Milan Kundera’s play Ševa. During the analyzed period, and especially at the end of the 1980s, Zagreb’s theaters often brought to the stage, during one season, a play by an unofficial playwright, a play that belongs to the classics of Czech literature, as well as guest performances by Czechoslovak theaters. Also, performances of unofficial authors were often considered the culmination of the theatre production of the particular season, so there is a number of examples showing that these plays represented Croatian theaters at festivals such as Gavelline večeri and Festival malih i eksperimentalnih scena Jugoslavije. A strong theatre reception was accompanied by a developed theatre-critical reception, but its scope depends, in part, on extra-literary factors. For example, the number of stage plays written by Václav Havel and Pavel Kohout were almost equal in Croatia in the 1970s and the 1980s, but the critical reception of Havel’s plays was much stronger due to the Havel’s dissident activities. Croatian publishers were not interested in publishing editions of the official Czech literature and the reception of these works was not developed during the 1970s and the 1980s. Those representatives of the official literature that were published and read in Croatia, such as Ladislav Fuks and Vladimír Páral, represent the qualitative highlights of the official literary production. Although the reception of the unofficial production was exceptional and the reception of the official literature was very poor, the cooperation at the institutional level existed, so the representatives of Czech official writers regularly participated in professional gatherings such as Zagrebački književni razgovori. An increased reception in Croatia occurred after 1980. The first decade of the normalization saw a good reception of Czech unofficial authors as a result of an interest in the events during the military intervention of Warsaw Pact and the events that followed. By the 1980s, Czech literature among readers in Yugoslavia had built up such a reputation that publishing unofficial authors made excellent profits for publishers in Yugoslavia. The popularity of unofficial writers in Western Europe, especially Milan Kundera, certainly contributed to this. Social changes in Yugoslav society in the second half of the 1980s affected the changes in critical reception. In the previous period, the excellent reception of the unofficial works in Yugoslavia was explained by the horizon of expectations of readers in Croatia, ie. Yugoslavia, that was built on the Czech literary tradition of Karel Čapek and Jaroslav Hašek and the brilliant acceptance of specific “Czech humor”. Towards the end of the 1980s, the analysis began focusing on good reception as a consequence of a similar historical experience in Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia during the 20th century. Several critics have agreed with the thesis that in the works of Czech writers, the readers and theatre audience in Croatia could see the image of Yugoslav society. Croatian writers could not or did not want to write about similar situation in Yugoslavia. There is no reception of the unofficial Czech literature in the Croatian educational system. This fact can be explained by the lack of affinity of the Croatian secondary school curriculum authors towards contemporary writers. By the beginning of the 2019/2020 school year, the chronological principle of teaching literature prevailed in all Croatian secondary schools. School curriculum included an extremely small number of works written after 1970, and most of the works included were written by Croatian authors. The proposed reform of the national curriculum, published in 2016, included Milan Kundera’s novel and Václav Havel’s play. However, the implementation of this proposal in the Croatian educational system has not occurred. The topic of this research, the reception of the unofficial Czech literature in Croatia from 1968 to 1990, the changes in the reception due to the changing social circumstances in Croatian society and the possible influence of the Czech unofficial literature on the works of Croatian writers, complete the knowledge of Croatian-Czech literary and cultural connections in the second half of the twentieth century.

Not only bread dumplings. Czech cuisine in the literary representationsCzech literature is often connected with the appreciation of the quotidian life. This opinion may be regarded as incorrect or inequitable because of its cliched nature and for its avoiding intensified interpretation, but it must be considered also in critical manner in a case of attempt to define the axiological and cultural basis of our southern neighbours. Culinary motifs — integrally creating the picture of the individual and collective identity — are strongly represented in this literature in which they either illustrate the typical Czech modus vivendi or conceptualize the constancy and role of the national tradition. Sometimes these motifs are also used for attempts of contesting the main components of the cultural heritage. The varied representations of cuisine recipes, foods, preparing of dishes, ways of consumption quite often returns in Czech literature and their semantic ability transcend the simply mimetic reflection of the everyday customs. Nejen knedliky. Ceska kuchyně jako objekt literarni reprezentace Ceska literatura je nezřidka spojovana se snahou přisuzovat hodnotu různým aspektům každodenniho života. Nezavisle na výstižnosti a směrodatnosti tohoto — ve sve podstatě schematickeho, castecně nespravedliveho a vyhýbajiciho se hlubsim exegezim — nazoru, by bylo třeba jej zohlednit alespoň v kriticke perspektivě při pokusu definovat axiologickou tvař tvorby nasich jižnich sousedů. Kulinarni temata — integralně spoluvytvařejici obraz individualni i kolektivni každodennosti — se v ni objevuji jaksi přirozeným způsobem a představuji z jedne strany odraz standartniho ceskeho modus vivendi a z druhe strany zase urcuji trvalost a přitažlivou silu narodni tradice, ale nejednou take svědci o pokusech o jeji překonani. Různorode reprezentace kulinarii předpisů, pokrmů, jejich připravy a konzumace se opětovně vyskytuji v ceske literatuře a jejich významový a semantický naboj dalece překracuje „prostý” mimetický odraz každodenniho zvyku.

The work Identity in Czech literary genres: national, territorial, cultural or historical? is an attempt at providing an answer to the title question by describing the conditions in which the characteristic features of Czech literary genres emerged and were amplified during the Czech national revival in the first half of the 19th century.

The author looks at Havel’s The Power of the Powerless in the context of Czech twentieth-century political fiction and the criticism that his writing and political activity has received. He also introduces other works, essays and plays, by the author that aid the assessment of statements made in The Power of the Powerless. The last quarter of the article discusses Havel and New Age ideas and endeavors to look at The Power of the Powerless in that light, but also to understand how a person who argued most of his life against the elements of ochlocracy in his own country could in spiritual matters become something of an ochlocrat himself.

The article dwells upon the influence of the official critics of Czechoslovakia on the literary process during Normalization. The phenomena in literary critics publications, typical for 1970–1980s, and actions of some critics (J. Hájek, H. Hrzalová, V. Dostál, J. Rybák, P. Belíček and others) are analyzed.

Growing up marked by trauma in Jiři Kratochvil’s, Uprostřed noci zpěv and Magdalena Tulla’s, Wloskie szpilkiThe process of political change began in Czechoslovakia at the end of 1989, a few months after the so-called Polish Round Table Talks, and after the events in Hungary, East Germany or Bulgaria, foretelling the political transformations in those countries. Poles and Czechs are nations steeped in history, whose rhythm is defined by traumas, many of which still await their artistic disarmament. Czech history is completely different than that of Poles. As a result of the tangled history, Czech and Polish national identities are not fully defined. The key objective of the proposed paper is to examine how the contemporary Polish and Czech writers confront their totalitarian heritage. We would like to focus on the works of a Mora­vian author Jiři Kratochvil b. 1940 in Brno, who is undervalued and barely known in Poland, and of a Polish writer Magdalena Tulla b. 1955. As a matter of fact, Jiři Kratochvil was truly discovered in the Czech Republic only after November 1989.Взросление в тени исторической травмы в повести Иржи Кратохвила Uprostřed noci zpěv и Магдалены Тулли Wloskie szpilkiПроцесс политических преобразований начался в Чехословакии в конце 1989 года, спустя несколько месяцев после польских переговоров т. наз. круглого стола и после событий в Венгрии, ГДР или Болгарии, которые предвещали политико-режимные трансформации в этих странах. Поляки и чехи — это народы, погруженные в историю, а ее ритм в польском и чешском мышлении диктуют травмы. Многие из них еще предстоит обезвредить при помощи инструментов искусства. Чешская история во многом отличается от нашей. По причине непростой истории чешская и польская национальные идентичности не получили своего четкого определения. Основной целью предлагаемого доклада является исследование того, как современные польские и чешские писатели сводят счеты с тоталитарным наследием. Главное внимание будет уделено творчеству моравского писателя Иржи Кратохвила 1940 г.р., Брно, автора малоизвестного в Польше, а также польской писательницы Магдалены Тулли 1955 г.р.. Иржи Кратохвил и в самой Чехии приобрел признание только после ноября 1989 года.

Between ennoblement and depreciation. Ideological codes of senility in the ninenteenth century Czech literature the case of Karel Vaclav Rais Interpretations of senility change in time. Successive periods of culture create codes of its description and evaluation on their own. Czech literature which from the very beginning of the nineteenth century was connected with the communication of the ideological, social and political senses of the National Revival and which was treated as the most important instrument of projecting and implementing the great collective ideas, was also directed into including these ideas in all fields of life. The glorification of senility, either as the existential category or the synonym of experience and wisdom was for the first time demonstrated in Božena Němcova’s novel Babicka. The high status of this masterpiece caused the many returns of the category of senility in Czech fiction. One of them is Karel Vaclav Rais prose Pantata Bezousek which initiates the discussion on the actual function of the old men/women in contemporary Czech society.Mezi nobilitaci adepreciaci. Ideologicke kody vnimani staři vceske literatuře připad Karla Vaclava RaiseVnimani staři se měni v case. Každa nasledujici epocha vytvaři vlastni kody jeho popisu a valorizace. Ceska literatura, ktere je od 19. stoleti přisuzovana funkce nositelky ideologických/politických/spolecenských obsahů ajsou ji urcovany ukoly nezřidka klicove vprogramovani arealizaci velkých spolecenských projektů, usilovala opodřizeni vsech oblasti života těmto projektům. Apoteozu staři — jako důležite existencionalni kategorie azaroveň synonyma zkusenosti amoudrosti — vykonala vteto literatuře, jak znamo, poprve Božena Němcova v romanu Babicka. Nepochybna autorita tohoto romanu způsobila, že tato kategorie byla cetně aschuti využivana, přicemž ji byly přisuzovany rozmanite funkce s využitim různých valorizacnich nastrojů. Karel Vaclav Rais se napřiklad v romanu Pantata Bezousek 1894 titulni postavou „moudreho venkovskeho starce” vraci kdiskuzi na tema nejdůležitějsich identitnich předpokladů Narodniho obrozeni aověřuje jejich aktualnost vmoderni spolecenske realitě konce 19. stoleti.

Forms of literary representation of age through changes in characters of old women in Czech short stories of 80s and 90s of the 19th centuryThe study deals with different representations of the character of old women in Czech literature of the second half of the nineteenth century. It focuses mainly on three short stories which show exceptof the literary image of old age also the proof of the vertical stratification of Czech literature of the end of the nineteenth century. The study also shows the literary controversy related to literary movements and intertextual relations. The latest short story which the study refers to is called Babiccin pohřeb and was written by Rudolf Karel Zahradka. It has a specific position in the context of thinking about the use of motifs associated with old age: not only could it be characterized as a subversive text due to the intertextual passages referring to Babicka by Božena Němcova, but it can be also identified as a proof of the penetration of the modernistic tendency in Czech literature.Obrazy literackich reprezentacji starości na podstawie postaci starej kobiety w opowiadaniach autorow z lat 80. i 90. XIX wiekuArtykul dotyczy sposobu reprezentacji postaci starej kobiety w literaturze czeskiej drugiej polowy XIX wieku. Autorka skupia swoją uwage zwlaszcza na opowiadaniach, ktore, oprocz literackiego obrazu starości, są rowniez wertykalną stratyfikacją czeskiej literatury konca XIX wieku, jej wewnetrznych dyskursywnych polemik i związkow intertekstualnych. Jako najbardziej interesujące jawi sie opowiadanie Rudolfa Karla Zahalki Babiccin pohřeb, ktore mozna, biorąc pod uwage związki intertekstualne, oznaczyc za tekst subwersyjny i pokazac na jego podstawie przenikanie do literatury czeskiej tendencji naturalistycznych.

Well before the publication of his first monograph, Jaroslav Spirk’s name was already familiar to many scholars of Portuguese and Slavonic translation studies. His doctoral dissertation, on which t...

The chapter starts from the premise that the study of cultural diplomacy, dominated by a focus on major world powers since 1945, would be illuminated by a better understanding of the cultural diplomatic activities of small, new or restored European states after 1918. It further argues that attempts to incorporate literary translation into cultural diplomacy quintessentially highlight the difficulties of practising cultural diplomacy. The chapter centrally documents the extent and nature of government support for Czech literary translation in the UK, mapping the networks that facilitated the translation of Czech imaginative literature and assessing their relationship with Czechoslovak cultural diplomacy. The chapter shows that the translation and promotion of Czech literature in the UK, though never the product of direct state strategy or intervention, is always linked to gatekeeper sympathy for the idea and aims of Czechoslovakia, but the reception of translated Czech literature in the UK shows no appreciation of this aspect until after the September 1938 Munich Agreement, when, for Czechoslovakia, it is too late.

La enseñanza de la literatura en las escuelas secundarias de la República Checa, contribuye de manera relevante a ofrecer nuevas perspectivas educativas a los jóvenes checos. En tal sentido, esta enseñanza funciona como atesoran en el mundo, desde la Odisea de Homero, por ejemplo, a través del drama Shakesperiano y Fausto de Goethe, a las novelas de Balzac o de Zola, a los autores del siglo XX que se dedicaron a la causa humanista desvelando las facetas ocultas de la existencia humana. El propósito de nuestra reflexión sobre temas interculturales es, en primer lugar, analizar la contribución de la lectura al nivel de conocimiento, proponer la posibilidad de utilizar textos literarios para demostrar hasta qué punto el diálogo entre culturas, está incluido en las propias obras, y, por último, considerar qué textos literarios contemporáneos a escala mundial podrían enriquecer de manera relevante la selección de libros recomendados a los jóvenes checos. La conclusión será una síntesis tratando de comparar la situación de los estudiantes checos con la de los jóvenes franceses. También se resalta el papel de la traducción no sólo en la enseñanza de la literatura, sino en el conocimiento del Otro. The teaching of literature in secondary schools in the Czech Republic (note that this is in the course of Czech literature courses and taught in Czech) contributes in a relevant way to open to young people new worlds. It works starting from the treasury of the world thought, Homer’s Odyssey for example through Shakespearean drama and Goethe’s Faust, to the novels by Balzac or by Zola, to the twentieth century authors who engaged in the humanist cause by unveiling the hidden facets of human existence. The purpose of our reflection on intercultural topics is first of all to analyze the contribution of reading to the level of knowledge, then to propose the possibilities of using literary texts to demonstrate how much the dialogue between cultures is included in the works themselves, and finally, to consider which contemporary literary texts on a world scale could enrich in a relevant way the choice of books recommended to young Czechs. The conclusion will be a synthesis trying to compare the situation of Czech students to that of young Frenchmen, for example. It will also highlight the role of translation not only in teaching literature, but in knowing the Other.

The study focuses on the importance, portrayal a function of song in Czech literature for children and youth since the 19th century. Attention is given particularly to book collections of songs for children, which together with their illustrations represent a distinctive artwork. The study analyzes the collections of song texts and last but not least also deals with picture books, which portray music in a visual way. The study is a result of long-term literary-historical research focused on the literature for children and youth and its reception by a child reader.

The study deals with the influence of the classical tradition on Czech literature of the Early Modern Period (Renaissance, Baroque). The article demonstrates this influence through examples of the use of selected motifs from ancient history in all of the main genres of the literature of that era: homily, legend, school drama, poetry and educational literature. The study also analyses the educational background of the authors and readers of the era and their attitude to ancient history; the ways of mediation and making use of ancient motifs in the literature; and the influence of ancient historiography on Renaissance and Baroque culture and interpretation of history.

This article takes a “genealogical” approach to the concept of minor literature. It argues that the concept of minor literature originated with the idea of “triple ghetto” that emerged in the Prague Czech-German-Jewish environment and was applied to explain the work of Kafka and his fellow Prague writers. Minor literature is the most famous application of the “triple ghetto” concept. A close reconsideration of Kafka’s German/Czech/Jewish Prague reveals interesting relations among several “small,” “minor” and “ultraminor” literatures, relationships that Deleuze and Guattari overlooked. The relationships between various literary entities in Prague extend beyond the binary positioning of “minor” and “major” inherent in the concept of minor literature. In addition to Kafka’s relationship to German literature, we need to consider Kafka’s relationship to the “small” Czech literature, the marginal “ultraminor” German and German Jewish and Czech Jewish literatures of his times, and perhaps most interestingly, to writers who were equally at home in German and Czech.

It has become difficult to evaluate and gauge the extent of the ever-expanding Czech literary web. This article focuses on analyzing the current status of the Czech literary web and associated onli...

This article focuses on three nontraditional works of Czech literature and film production on the Holocaust that use elements of comedy and humor. The article discusses a Czech novel, Life with a Star (Život s hvězdou, written by Jiři Weil, published in 1949); a series of seven short stories, The Menorah (Sedmiramenný svicen, written by Josef Skvorecký, published in 1964); and six different versions of The Shop on Main Street (a short story, a serial, two versions of a screenplay, a novel, and a film) produced by Ladislav Grosman, Jan Kadar, and Elmar Klos (published in 1962, 1964, 1965, and 1998). It readdresses the place of comedy and humor in artistic representations of the Holocaust.

The Czech post-war avant-garde is split between collective enthusiasm, the adoration of the masses, and the depiction of the lone individual in crisis. Interpretations of this period have until now...

Aquest treball té com a finalitat traduir dos contes infantils txecs al català. Per introduir els lectors en el món txec, he fet una extensa introducció sobre la història de la nació txeca i la seva literatura al llarg dels segles. És interessant d'observar com la història dels txecs i la dels catalans ha tingut algunes èpoques semblants pel que fa a la repressió, tant a nivell social i polític com a nivell literari i cultural. També dono a conèixer l'autor i el programa televisiu que va llançar a la fama els seus nombrosos contes. Abans de passar a la traducció dels contes, explico el marc teòric de la traducció de literatura infantil: les seves funcions, ja que la literatura per a nens no és només educativa i lúdica, sinó que té moltes altres funcions que influeixen en el desenvolupament cognitiu i social del jove lector; la importància del suport visual i del llenguatge i contingut adequats, i finalment presento les teories d'alguns traductòlegs referents a la traducció de literatura infantil. El següent bloc del treball comprèn dos contes traduïts, i a continuació explico, analitzo i classifico els problemes de traducció. En última instància he fet una conclusió per recapitular els punts més importants tractats. Este trabajo tiene como finalidad traducir dos cuentos infantiles checos al catalán. Para introducir a los lectores en el mundo checo, he hecho una extensa introducción sobre la historia de la nación checa y su literatura a lo largo de los siglos. Es interesante observar como la historia de los checos y la de los catalanes han tenido algunas épocas parecidas en lo que respecta a la represión, tanto a nivel social y político como a nivel literario y cultural. También doy a conocer al autor y al programa televisivo que lanzó a la fama sus numerosos cuentos. Antes de pasar a la traducción de los cuentos, explico el marco teórico de la traducción de literatura infantil: sus funciones, puesto que la literatura para niños no es solamente educativa y lúdica, sino que tiene muchas otras funciones que influyen en el desarrollo cognitivo y social del joven lector; la importancia del soporte visual y el lenguaje y el contenido adecuados; y finalmente presento las teorías de algunos traductólogos referentes a la traducción de la literatura infantil. El siguiente bloque del trabajo comprende dos cuentos traducidos, y a continuación explico, analizo y clasifico los problemas de traducción. En última instancia he hecho una conclusión para recapitular los puntos más importantes tratados. The purpose of this study is to translate two Czech children's tales into Catalan. To introduce the Czech world to the readers, I have made an extensive introduction to the history of the Czech nation and its literature over the centuries. It is interesting to observe how the history of the Czechs and that of the Catalans has had some similar epochs in terms of repression, both socially and politically, and at the literary and cultural level. I also introduce the author and the television program that launched his numerous stories to fame. Before moving on to the translated stories, I explain the theoretical framework of the translation of children's literature: its functions, since literature for youth is not only educational and playful, but has many other functions that influence in the cognitive and social development of the young reader; the importance of visual support and the appropriate content and use of language; and finally I present the theories of some academicians of translation studies referring to the translation of children's literature. The next section of the study comprises two translated stories, and after that I explain, analyse and classify the translation problems. Ultimately, I have written a conclusion to recap the most important points that have appeared.