Czech Literature Guide

CZECH CZECH LITERATURE LITERATURE GUIDE GUIDE GUIDE LITERATURE CZECH CZECH LITERATURE GUIDE Supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic © Institut umění – Divadelní ústav (Arts and Theatre Institute) First edition ISBN 978-80-7008-272-0 All rights of the publication reserved CONTENT ABOUT THE CZECH REPUBLIC 12 A CONCISE HISTORY OF CZECH LITERATURE 13 LITERATURE 1900–45 13 LITERATURE AFTER 1945 13 CONTEMPORARY CZECH LITERATURE 1995–2010 20 PROSE 20 POETRY 26 ESSAY 31 LITERATURE FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE 37 THE BOOK MARKET 41 THE TEACHING OF WRITING IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC 48 CONTEMPORARY LITERARY LIFE 51 ORGANIZATIONS AND INSTITUTIONS 51 LITERARY AND BOOK AWARDS 56 FESTIVALS AND FAIRS 58 EDUCATION 59 LEGISLATION AND LITERARY AGENCIES 62 LIBRARIES AND ARCHIVES 63 GRANTS AND SCHOLARSHIPS 65 LITERARY CAFÉS AND TEA-ROOMS 68 ANTIQUARIAN BOOKSHOPS 71 MEDIA 77 LITERARY PERIODICALS 77 CZECH LITERATURE ON THE WEB 82 LITERARY PROGRAMMES ON TV 83 LITERARY PROGRAMMES ON RADIO 83 CZECH LITERATURE ABROAD 87 VARIOUS LINKS 87 OVERVIEW OF FOREIGN CZECH STUDIES SCHOLARS, TRANSLATORS AND FRIENDS OF CZECH CULTURE 87 DEAR READERS WITH AN INTEREST IN CZECH LITERATURE Allow us to draw your attention to our Czech Literature Guide. It presents a panorama of the contemporary life of Czech literature with a short historical overview. It has been produced for everyone who has an interest in understanding Czech literary culture and its milieu, from the specialist and scholarly to the active and practical. 11 ABOUT THE CZECH REPUBLIC CZECH LITERATURE GUIDE 12 ABOUT THE CZECH REPUBLIC The Czech Republic (CR) is a landlocked country The GDP per capita in CZK in 2010 was 361,986 with a territory of 78,865 m2 lying in the centre (exchange rate EUR 1 = CZK 24.5) and the infl ation of Europe. The country has borders with Poland, rate in the year 2010 was 1.5 %. The Czech income Germany, Austria and Slovakia, and is currently tax rate for individuals’ income in 2010 was a fl at divided into 14 regions. Since 2004 the CR has rate of 15 %. Corporate tax in 2010 was 19 %. Pen- been a member of the EU. At the end of 2009 sion and investment funds paid 5 % corporate tax there were 10.5 million people living in the CR; and the rate of corporation tax in 1992 was 45 % as those aged 0–14: 1,488,000, 15–64: 7,425,000, compared to the present rate of 19 %. 65+: 1,578,000. The capital is Prague with a po- The minimum wage in the year 2010 was pulation of approximately 1,249,000. A resident 8,000 CZK, the average monthly salary was CZK is someone who has a place of abode in the CR 25,803, but in the cultural sector only 22,233. The for 183 days or more during the year. Residents in current unemployment rate is approximately 9.6 %. the CR have full tax-paying status. The cultural sector is administered by the Ministry The history of the Czech state goes back to the of Culture, with non-profi t organisations playing an 9th century (Greater Moravia) and the 10th century important role. Since 1989 the latter have taken the (the fi rst Bohemian state). Historically, its periods form of civil associations, non-profi t companies, of greatest political infl uence and cultural fl owe- endowment funds and church legal entities invol- ring were in the 13th and 14th centuries (the last ved in the provision of educational and cultural ser- Premyslids, Charles IV) and in the 16th century (Ru- vices, the majority of which are civil associations. In dolph II). After centuries of rule as provinces of the 1996 Forum 2000 was founded in Prague as a joint Habsburg Empire (from 1620), Bohemia and Mo- initiative of the Czech president Václav Havel, the ravia became an independent national state (with Japanese philanthropist Yohei Sasakawa and the Slovakia) in 1918 as Czechoslovakia. Between the Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel. Since 2000 two world wars Czechoslovakia was a democratic the Forum 2000 Foundation has supported the state with a highly developed economy. The com- international NGO Market. munist period started in 1948. In 1989 Czechoslova- kia changed its political regime. In 1993 the country Approximately 15 % of the population has a uni- was peacefully divided into two independent sta- versity education and the proportion is growing. tes: the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Václav Havel The number of households directly connected was the fi rst president of the new Czech state. The to the internet is rising dramatically. In the year current president is Václav Klaus. 2010 it was 49.2 %, while 94.6 % of households used mobile phones (active SIM cards). 13 A CONCISE HISTORY OF CZECH LITERATURE A CONCISE LITERATURE AFTER 1945 The year 1945 is popularly considered an impor- HISTORY tant milestone, at which point the eff ect, role and subject matter of Czech literature undergo OF CZECH es pro found change. However, we can speak neither of this time nor of many others as LITERATURE a break with our past to be express ed in terms of a defi nite date. To begin with, also the period of occupation which immediately preceded 1945 can be characterized by its developments and LITERATURE 1900–45 transformations (viewed in terms of its eff ect, the literature of 1940, for instance, is very diff er- At the end of the 19th century Czech literary ent from the literature of 1943), while the year modernism was moving away from the prevailing 1945 is considered and interpreted as a step in realism. Anti-realistic tendencies and a resistance two directions – both as a return and as the tak- to the national literary traditions grew in the ing of a new way. The period of wartime and oc- fi rst decades of the 20th century, led by a desire cupation is without doubt one of hiatus; we have to follow, imitate and even anticipate European breaks in continuity given by the cutting of short trends. This can be seen particularly in the works of lives (including those of Vladislav Vančura, of the poetists and later the surrealists, such as Jaroslav Kratochvíl and Bedřich Václavek) and Vítězslav Nezval (1900–58). In interwar Prague the disruption of artistic output (the falling silent, there was a large community of authors writing for various reasons, of published voices – such as in German, the most celebrated being Franz those of Egon Hostovský and Vítězslav Nezval). Kafka (1883–1924), who infl uenced literature We also have enforced change in the practice of worldwide and is still widely read. In his im- reading, by which literature obtains a keenly al- mortal Švejk, which is famous across the world legorical function and once again becomes a tool today, the humorist Jaroslav Hašek (1883–1923) for social, political and patriotic ends. This latter precisely captured the type of Czech mentality provides an explanation for the understanding of which outwardly appears to be kowtowing but 1945 as a point of return, a re-engagement with is in actual fact not capitulating to the oppres- a tradition which has been suspended. And this sive powers which regularly alternate in the heart return also embraces a return to the time of the of Europe. The armed mobilisations during the occupation – many works published between world wars inspired writers such as Karel Čapek 1945 and 1947 are witness accounts based on (1890–1938) to write dystopias, warning against real experiences, whether in the form of autobi- the destruction of the world. A way out from the ography (memoirs, diaries) or politically- crisis of private and social problems was off ered -engaged poetry, publication of which was im- by the Catholic literary current, for example by possible in wartime. Jaroslav Deml (1878–1961), as well as by left- -leaning authors such as Julius Fučík (1903–43). The harsh reality of occupation includes the The latter were the forerunners of the poetics of control of literature by institutions (censor- socialist realism which became institutionalised ship, self-censorship, the view of literature as an following the communist seizure of power in instrument of society); it sees a renewal of the 1948. Attempts at authenticity and experiments conception of literature as the “conscience/con- on the border between literature and visual sciousness of the nation” but at the same time it art came from Jiří Kolář (1912–2002) and the provides a completely new impetus which ushers infl uential Skupina 42 [Group 42]. Vladimír Holan in literary development from within. During the (1905–80) stands out amongst the poets as an occupation the course of existential poetry is author of intellectually demanding, refl ective and plotted (for which see the Poets’ Almanac for meditative poetry of personal images. Spring 1940, and in this, most importantly, the contributions of Jiří Orten and Hanuš Bonn), and it comes together in the immensely infl uential and productive Skupina 42 [Group 42], which spawns the work of Jiří Kolář, Ivan Blatný and Josef Kainar. The poetry and prose writings of this period (in particular those of its younger generation) embrace a myriad of new ways to CZECH LITERATURE GUIDE 14 explain the purpose of humanity, and they are relationship. While in some work the individual open to new poetic techniques which go beyond views the events of history as a derailing, thei r domestic tradition. Newness becomes in a disruption which is permanent (see Mucha, and of itself a positive value. And this search for Hostovský, Weil), in other work a solution is a new way is intensifi ed in the early post-war proposed which sees the individual identify with years; links are strengthened between literature a given collectivity (see Drda, Jariš, E.

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