Girlfriends from the House of Sadness

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Friends from the House of Sadness (Czech: Přítelkyně z domu smutku ) is a documentary novel by the Czech author and former dissident Eva Kantůrková .

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In the book is about Kantůrkovás prison as a detainee in Prague- Ruzyně in 1981-1982. She describes the poor sanitary conditions in the prison, the daily humiliation by the prison staff, the tenacious efforts of the inmates to preserve their own human dignity as much as possible. These women from the fringes of society are not dissidents, they are petty criminals or people who for various reasons do not fit into the concept of a socialist society and who violate it simply by their existence: Romnija , lesbians , strays. The novel is exactly one year long, beginning and ending on May 8th, International Women's Day . In this context, the prisoners' status as women is denied. Women's day does not count for them because they are criminals and not women. However, the women do not let themselves get down and dance to oppose the oppression with their courage to face life.

The author draws 10 sensitive portraits of these women without, as she herself says, apologizing for possible misconduct or showing solidarity with them. The title of the novel alludes to Charles Dickens' novel Bleak House , which deals with maladministration in the British judicial system.

Publication history

In 1984 the font was published by an exile publisher in Cologne. After the Velvet Revolution , Kantůrková took part in the Citizens' Forum and gained a seat in the National Council . Your book was also published in Prague in 1990.

According to the book, the four-part series of the same name was filmed on Czechoslovak TV in 1992 , in which the main role was played by Ivana Chýlková . The series was shot in a Prague prison.

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Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Madelaine Hron: Czech Women's Writing From Communism to Post-Communism , Journal of International Women's Studies , 4 (3), p. 88
  2. ↑ Frances Padorr Brent: Jailed in Prague , New York Times on 13 December 1987th