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Czech and Slovak journalism, which began with the revolutionary press of 1848 and 1849, became a dominant force in cultural and political life, after a brief repressive period in the 1850s. This study traces the evolution of modern Czechoslovak journalism from 1848 to February 1948, when the Communist party's rise to power forced a change in its orientation and mission. The first section deals specifically with the establishment of press traditions, and with growth and activism until the end of the First Republic in 1938. The second section focuses on the Communist party press, its origins, and the conflicts which arose from its given task, to reorient the nation toward a new political and socioeconomic course. Journalism is shown to have been an important weapon, utilized by an activist intelligentsia in the struggle against tyranny, absolute rule, and suppression of basic human rights. (JM)

AbstractLesbian voices and experiences have received little attention in Czech historiography: recent research has concentrated on the modern era from the 1950s. This article deepens our understanding of lesbian lives in interwar Prague. It focuses on two forgotten lesbian novels, Exiles of Love and The Third Sex, which were deliberately suppressed after 1948 by the Communist regime as examples of inferior bourgeois literature. The two authors, Lída Merlínová and Gill Sedláčková, both hailed from Prague’s cultural world (theatre and film) and were active too in the 1930s Czech movement for homosexual reform. Spanning the late twenties to the late thirties, the novels reveal tantalising glimpses of the evolving sub-culture of interwar Prague. Merlínová’s naïve novel of 1929, Exiles of Love, was the first Czech lesbian novel, and it betrayed the 1920s optimism of the ‘Czech New Woman’ who was prepared to challenge gender stereotypes. Sedláčková’s novel, The Third Sex, is a more explicit study from 1937, reflecting the more mature sub-culture but also a cynicism about the chances of homosexual reform. Yet it manages, even more than Exiles, to convey an uplifting and moral message. Indeed, both novels are about lesbian self-knowledge, exploring the scope for same-sex survival in a world where the best solution may be abroad, not in ‘provincial Prague’. In restoring these texts to lesbian literature we recover a range of voices, expressing the hopes and frustrations of some queer Czech women in an unusually liberal era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 1990s represented a decade marked by the fall of communism and the emergence of a free and capitalist society in Czechoslovakia (and its successor, the Czech Republic). With the passage of time, the motifs of the decade's memories begin to show in Czech prose; the literary representations of the memory of the 1990s can be usually found, among others, in the works of authors of the young generation who lived in the post-revolutionary period during their childhood or adolescence. In our study, through the analysis of excerpts from novels written by authors from this generation, we observed and characterized the different modes of this collective memory, in which nostalgia predominates, but social criticism and signs of trauma can be found as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Bohemistyka is the property of Instytut Filologii Slowianskiej Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Using close reading of Kundera's texts, Jan Čulík argues that many arguments in Milan Kundera's literary works are deliberate provocations. Kundera's approach is undoubtedly related to post-modernism, although he used his mystification techniques long before the arrival of postmodernism, as early as in the Stalinist 1950s when he published fake quotes from Lenin in official Stalinist publications. In Jan Čulík's view, it is the purpose of Milan Kundera's systematic use of false facts, distortions and disrupted logic to warn his readers against against the unreliability of words and human communication. Kundera seems to argue that the world in its complexity is basically unknowable and the only thing that is left for us is, in despair, in our ignorace of what is going on around us, to carry out pranks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with humanism in Jáchym Topol's novel Gargling with Tar (Kloktat dehet, Prague, 2005). The Czech writer's perspective is close to the concepts of German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk, who claims that the Romans were not only the authors of the idea of humanitas but also the inventors of bloody games such as circuses. In Topol's novel, the circus is a holistic political project. The novel refers to the ideas developed in Russia in the 1920s, when a large number of circus theories and artistic manifestos were formulated. The circus was then officially recognised as the most important form of social entertainment (together with cinema) and it gained religious, aesthetic and political functions. By using the grotesque, fantasy and parody (Czechoslovakia as a giant circus), Topol's novel creates an alternative narrative about the Prague Spring and "normalisation". New meanings for notions such as progress, revolution and community are also revealed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Six hundred years of Czech writing are documented in The New York Public Library's holdings. The article shows how ideas traveled from century to century in the Czech lands and who transmitted those ideas. Examples from the collection are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Acta Universitatis Carolinae Historia Universitatis Carolinae Pragensis is the property of Charles University Prague, Karolinum Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the gendering of nationalist discourse and ethnic stereotypes in early 20th-century Czech literature, gender and nationalism in modern Czech culture, and modernist masculinity.

Focuses on the comic book publication, "Čtyřlístek," which went on to provide a number of generations of Czech children not only a means of escape from the Communist doctrine, but also an alternative upbringing and a moral compass. Publication's characters that look like human-animal hybrids; Czechs' love of fairytales and storytelling; Views of Jaroslav Němeček, the creator and illustrator of "Čtyřlístek," about the many hurdles that even a simple children's comic book faced in Communist Czechoslovakia; Effects of Communist clampdown; Reasons why Western comics do not survive in the Czech Republic.