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The Survival Force of Literature Michal Přibáň a Kolektiv, Český Literární Samizdat 1949–1989

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The Survival Force of Literature Michal Přibáň a Kolektiv, Český Literární Samizdat 1949–1989 POZNAŃSKIE STUDIA SLAWISTYCZNE PSS NR 19/2020 ISSN 2084-3011 DOI: 10.14746/pss.2020.19.20 Data przesłania tekstu do redakcji: 31.07.2020 Urszula Kowalska-Nadolna Data przyjęcia tekstu do druku: 30.08.2020 Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań [email protected] ORCID: 0000-0002-7495-9236 The Survival Force of Literature Michal Přibáň a kolektiv, Český literární samizdat 1949–1989. Edice, časopisy, sborníky. Praha: Academia–Ústav pro českou literaturu AV ČR, 2018, pp. 612. ABSTRACT: Kowalska-Nadolna Urszula, The Survival Force of Literature. “Poznańskie Studia Slawistyczne” 19. Poznań 2020. Publishing House of the Poznań Society for the Advancement of the Arts and Sciences, Adam Mickiewicz University, pp. 391–404. ISSN 2084-3011. The following review article brings a presentation of the published in 2018 encyclopaedia of Czech literary samizdat. The analysed publication consists of two parts – a comprehensive in- troduction discussing the question of independent literary culture in Czechoslovakia under com- munist regime pressure and an entry section with more than 300 entries about Czech independent self-publishing activities. The presentation of the following book provokes the need to re-examine the phenomenon of Czech samizdat, reflecting on its chronological framework, definition, mean- ing and role in creating and keeping alive an independent culture in the era of domination of the communist regime (1948–1989). KEYWORDS: Czech dissent; self-publishing in Czechoslovakia; wild samizdat; samizdat; Czech independent culture of the communist period Literature cannot be eradicated. It is not doing very well in the catacombs, but this is a training of persistence. [...] At least all those, who do not carry it in a heart as the only reason for existence, will leave. (Jan Hanč [trans. U.K.-N.]) The Czechs seem to expect from journalists and writers things, in which failed so far even the Blaník knights. (Petr Pithart [trans. U.K.-N.]) The prominent Czech writer, journalist, and diplomat Jiří Gruša attri- buted to the Czech samizdat the role of a ventilator, enabling its authors 392 Urszula Kowalska-Nadolna any movement or action. He saw in alternative Czech culture a counterbal- ance to the literary and artistic “glaciation”, typical for the cultural pub- lishing policy of the communist regime. “This kind of ubiquitous death has established a new source of heat that has come to be called dissent” (cf. Hvížďala, 2011, 126). In the “timeless time” of “normalization” (it was Petr Pithart who wrote about čas bezčasu in the context of this his- torical period, cf. Pithart, 2009, 14), men of literature, men of letters (cf. Možný, 2009, 53) became the pillar of dissident movement. They were perceiving, according to Václav Havel, “the socio-hygienic meaning of the word.” Thanks to their actions, the “facade of official culture” existing in communist Czechoslovakia, as well as in Poland, has ceased to obscure the solidly constructed “large buildings of unofficial culture” (cf. Barańczak, 2009, 382–383). In 2018 Ústav pro českou literaturu AV ČR (The Institute of Czech Literature of the CAS) in cooperation with Academia publishing house published a study that provides penetrating insight into this quite “large building”. It returns thereby to the subject of independent Czech litera- ture before 1989, as well as many valuable studies published during recent years, presenting the issues of Czech samizdat and dissident circles which constituted the world of independent Czech culture in the second half of the 20th century.1 However, the encyclopaedia, prepared by the research team led by Michal Přibáň, is an exceptional publication which certainly de- serves attention and appreciation also in a foreign research space. It seems, that it is the first work thematically considered in such a way – the authors dealt not only with the most well-known and well-described in scientific literature self-publishing phenomena (just to mention Edice Petlice, Edice 1 It is impossible to list here all relevant publications about independent Czech culture of the communist regime period (most of the titles are to be found in the reviewed book). However, it is worth to note that last years brought interesting research studies for English speaking readers, just to mention few of them: Bolton, J. (2012). Worlds of Dissent: Char- ter 77, the Plastic People of the Universe, and Czech Culture Under Communism. Lon- don: Harvard University Press; Machovec, M. (ed.) (2018). Views from the Inside Czech Underground Literature and Culture (1948–1989): Manifestoes – Testimonies – Docu- ments. Prague: Charles University–Karolinum Press; Glanc, T. (ed.) (2018). Samizdat: Past & Present. Prague: Institute of Czech Literature–Karolinum Press; Machovec, M. (2019). Writing Underground Reflections on Samizdat Literature in Totalitarian Czechoslovakia. Prague: Karolinum Press. The Survival Force of Literature 393 Expedice or the magazines such as, for example, “Revolver Revue”), but first and foremost collected many unknown data on a number of local, small editions and magazines devoted to broadly defined literary culture. The first part of the book (quite modestly titled by the authors “Intro- duction” [cf. Úvodem, pp. 11–93]) provides a comprehensive study of in- dependent literary culture in Czechoslovakia after World War II. The value of this introductory study on existence of the so-called literary samizdat cannot be overestimated, since its authors managed to gather the most im- portant historical, sociological, cultural, literary and linguistic information related to the independent Czechoslovak culture, previously dispersed in separate publications or completely absent from the scientific discourse. The authors, with enviable respect and caution, consider terminology, pre- cisely defining the scope of their interests, while being aware of the pitfalls lurking in this precision. Since it is difficult to conclude that the encyclo- paedia of literary samizdat concerns only literature and only samizdat, it is certainly impossible to separate the title term from non-literary artistic and journalistic activities, or from the exile literary circles, strongly associated with the domestic independent artistic scene. The essence of the following publication is quite well visible just af- ter reading its first pages, where the authors summarize a discussion on the term samizdat, borrowed from the Russian language, but, especially in the period between the Prague Spring and the Velvet Revolution, well- established in the Czech context. As an important “component” of the phe- nomenon of samizdat (apart from its obvious “self-sufficiency”, existing and evolving regardless of techniques and possibilities of official publish- ing institutions), its belonging to an alternative culture and being in close relations with the so-called political dissent are also discussed in the en- cyclopaedia (which is why, among other, it is not appropriate to talk about samizdat in the context of independent works published in The Protector- ate of Bohemia and Moravia, cf. p. 14). The appearance of the term itself directs to 1949 (the person responsi- ble for its existence is considered to be the poet Nikolaj Glazkov, who re- leased his original manuscript, for political reasons officially “uneditable”, with the note “samsebjaizdat” [p. 13]). In Czechoslovakia, the term settled mainly in the context of literature of the 1970s and 1980s, but it also ap- pears in relation to independent works edited after February 1948 (with the 394 Urszula Kowalska-Nadolna most famous underground editions Půlnoc established by Egon Bondy and Explosionalismus by Vladimír Boudník). However, an eminent researcher of the Czech underground and independent culture, Martin Machovec, suggests using the term protosamizdat in the context of literary activities of this period (cf. Machovec, 2009, 1–26). The terminological balancing between these two terms does not change the fact, that none of them was used in the 1950s in reference to independent Czechoslovak literature. The description samizdat had to wait for its popularity until the 1970s – on the one hand the darkest, on the other hand perhaps the most creative period in the 20th century history of Czechoslovak culture. The authors note here an interesting sociological issue, emphasizing that at first the usage of the Russian term in the context of literature or, more broadly, culture, which reacted critically to Soviet domination, was something difficult to accept for many independent publishers and writers (cf. p. 14). Besides samizdat, which eventually has been approved by the critics as the appropriate literary term, it is worth mentioning some of the alterna- tive terminological ideas, such as: literatura ineditní (literally: “unedited” or “uneditable” literature), neoficiální (unofficial), nezávislá (independ- ent), opoziční (dissident), paralelní (parallel) or even petliční (allusive to the name of the most famous Czech independent publishing house Edice Petlice [Edition Padlock]).2 In the discussion about the appropriate name, the “second circulation” (cf. 14–15), known from the Polish context, or the concept of literatura strojpisná (“typewritten literature”), referring to the techniques of the texts “production”, were also considered. The discussion, aimed at establishing the appropriate terminology, la- sted for many years and it probably would not be an exaggeration to say, that in some circles of literary scholars it lasts till now. Petr Fidelius, in the article published
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