Czech literature

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As Czech literature , the written down or orally transmitted texts in the Czech language , especially of fiction called. In addition, the literature that has arisen in the area of ​​today's Czech Republic in Latin, German and Hebrew over the centuries must be taken into account. Czech-language publications abroad are referred to as Czech exile literature .

middle Ages

Old Church Slavonic literature in the Moravian Empire

During the Christian missionary work in the Moravian Empire in the 9th century, the oldest monuments of Slavic literature were created. Prince Rastislav brought the two Byzantine scholars Cyril and Method to Moravia in 862 . They proselytized in the Old Church Slavonic language , for which Kyrill had specially created the Glagolitic script . In 868 Pope Hadrian II recognized the Slavic liturgy. The oldest surviving document is the Proglas , a preface attributed to Cyril to the translation of the Gospels . At the end of the 9th century, the lives of the saints, The Life of Constantine and the Life of Method , were written, in which the lives of the two Slav apostles were recorded by contemporaries. After the prohibition of the Slavic liturgy in 885 and the flight of many students Kyrill and Methods to Croatia and Bulgaria, the Latin Church in Moravia prevailed.

Latin and Old Church Slavonic tradition in Bohemia

Sázava Monastery

At the end of the 9th century, the Bohemian Duke Bořivoj I and his wife Ludmilla were baptized and taught by Method in the Christian faith. His son Spytihněv I. distanced himself from the Moravian Empire and consolidated the rule of the Přemyslids in Bohemia. The church and the Bohemian rulers promoted further Christianization with Latin texts , which was sealed with the establishment of the diocese of Prague in 973. The Old Church Slavonic tradition was alive in Bohemia until the 11th century, but it did not withstand the pressure from Rome.

The center of the Old Slavonic tradition was that the Holy Prokop founded Sázava Monastery in Prague. The Old Church Slavonic texts contain legends of Bohemian- West Slavic origin, such as the legend of St. Wenceslaus , which was probably written around 950 but was not written down until the 14th century. The legend of St. Ludmilla and the so-called Prague leaves , which contain Christian supplications, are also important.

From the 11th to the 13th century, the Latin language was the dominant language of literature and scholars in the Czech settlement area. To be mentioned here are the hagiographies , legends of saints, the most important of which is the Christian legend. It is also of great importance as a historical source and is the first to contain the Premyslid origin legend . The Chronica Boemorum ("Chronicle of the Bohemians") by Cosmas of Prague , who was also known as " Herodotus of the Middle Ages", and its continuation by Benesch von Weitmühl is still observed today .

The beginnings of Czech-language literature in the 13th and 14th centuries

The first Czech sentence on the founding document of the Leitmeritz chapter

Old Czech literature is available from around the year 1300. With the most important Bohemian King Charles IV of Luxembourg, Prague became the capital of the Holy Roman Empire and the center of a cultural area. There was an economic boom, which brought poetry to the fore and the founding of Charles University in Prague. Latin continued to be the language of literature and science. The oldest surviving document in the Czech language is a sentence on the founding deed of the Leitmeritz chapter , which dates to the beginning of the 13th century.

The first texts in Old Czech are:

German texts

As a result of the German colonization of the Slavic areas since the 13th century, the German culture and language also influenced the courtly life of the Přemyslid dynasty ruling in Bohemia and subsequent generations. This was particularly noticeable in the tradition of the popular minstrel . Reinmar von Zweter, for example, worked at the Bohemian court . Ulrich von Etzenbach wrote homage to Ottokar II Přemysl . His son, King Wenzel II , even composed minnesong in German as "Wenzel von Beheim"

The farmer from Bohemia , in a dispute with death

In the middle of the 14th century, Behem lant's Di tutsch kronik was published , a translation and revision of the Dalimil Chronicle from the Czech. Johannes von Neumarkt , the chancellor of Emperor Charles IV, had a style-defining effect beyond Bohemia. In 1460 was the Ackermann from Bohemia of John of Tepl printed, one of the most impressive publications of the Middle Ages in Bohemia. The Czech counterpart to the Ackermann, the Tkadleček borrows from the work. A common template is also conceivable.

Hebrew texts

Under the Přemyslids, the Jews were an economically and culturally important factor in Bohemia as traders and financiers. The Hebrew texts created at that time are said to have been more numerous than the Latin ones. The “Prague Talmudists ” were particularly influential, but only fragments of their writings have survived. The Prague Talmudists also used Czech glosses , for example Isaac ben Mose explains unknown Hebrew words in his mother tongue.

The great pogrom of 1389 and numerous fires largely destroyed this literature. Josef Dobrovský published "Pragical Fragments of Hebrew Manuscripts" in 1777 after his own research.

Hussitism

The reformer Jan Hus - one of the most influential figures in Czech history - was born in South Bohemia in 1370 . After studying in Prague , he became a supporter of the English church critic John Wyclif , who opposed the privileges of the Roman Catholic clergy and other abuses in the church and demanded the sole authority of the Bible . Among other things, Hus sought communion in both forms (sub utraque specie). Because of his criticism of the Roman Catholic Church, he was condemned as a heretic at the Council of Constance in 1415 and died by fire . The outrage of his supporters led to the first lintel in Prague from the New Town Hall and the Hussite Wars .

The publications of Jan Hus, both in Latin and in Czech, are of great importance in the Czech language. He is considered to be the founder of the diacritical system. In Orthographia Bohemica he introduces diacritics instead of digraphs for the first time and thus lays the foundation for the design of today's written Czech language. He also wrote a catechism to explain the central texts of Christianity as well as the "Knížky o svatokupectvi" (Eng. "Little book about the simony ") in the Czech of the time.

The turmoil of the Hussite period had a devastating effect on literature and art in Bohemia. The Hussite songs are known , especially Ktož jsú boží bojovníci . Lorenz von Brösau wrote down the events in the Husitská kronika (Hussite Chronicle).

Modern times

Humanism and renaissance

The Kralitz Bible

Around 1450 at the beginning of modern times , the congregation of the Bohemian Brethren (unitas fratrum) emerged as a follow-up to the reform movement of the Hussites . From it emerged the Kralitz Bible ("Kralická bible"), the first Bible translation from the original languages ​​Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek into the Czech language. Jan Blahoslav , a historian of the parish and author of the “Gramatika česká”, was an apologist for the Brethren .

Renaissance literature existed in Bohemia only few, Hynek z Poděbrad wrote parodies and translated as the Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio .

In the time of humanism , the predominant European cultural language was Latin. Bohemian humanists were Bohuslaus Lobkowicz von Hassenstein , Jan Campanus Vodňanský and the first poet known by name, Elisabeth Johanna von Weston . However, there were numerous scholars in Bohemia who wanted to prove that Czech as a language was capable of expressing the same content as the great models in Latin. For this reason, numerous translations from Latin first appeared. Viktorin Kornel ze Všehrd, for example, switched to the Czech language so that a larger readership could understand his texts. In the 16th century, the publisher and printer Daniel Adam z Veleslavína set standards and shaped the language. His in print Czech was used at the beginning of the 19th century. (see: National Rebirth). The "Kronika česká" by Václav Hájek z Libočan , a partisan, anti-German chronicle that was widely read until the 19th century, also became important.

Johann Amos Comenius

The bishop Jan Amos Komenský (Johann Amos Comenius) from South Moravia is considered to be the most important scholar of the time. He was active in exile in Hungary, Silesia, England and Sweden and died in Amsterdam. His didactic-pedagogical works (“Didactica Magna”) in Latin are still formative today for the design of school books and for teaching boys and girls. He was often referred to as the “teacher of the nations”, is mentioned with praise in local histories, and was named after schools and the European Comenius program for school education. His most outstanding literary work is the utopian novel Labyrint světa a ráj srdce (The labyrinth of the world and the paradise of the heart).

Baroque

The expulsion of the Protestants and the re-Catholicization in Bohemia since the beginning of the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) meant that the baroque literature was strongly influenced by Catholicism, often there are poems of the veneration of Mary or hymn books ( Kancionály ). The poetic texts by the composer Adam Michna are outstanding . Matěj Václav Šteyer's “Český kancionál”, which contains over 850 songs, is particularly well known . One of the masterpieces of Catholic poetry is “Co Bůh? Člověk? “, A poetic meditation on the relationship between man and God by the Jesuit Bedřich Bridel . The rich imagery of the work is comparable to that of Andreas Gryphius .

The Czech translations by the Jesuit Felix Kadlinský contain religious consolation literature for coping with everyday life during the Thirty Years' War. It is also worth mentioning the work of the polymath Bohuslav Balbín , who wrote historical and hagiographical writings as well as an apologetic treatise on the Slavic languages, with a special focus on the Czech language, which he was strongly committed to using.

Classicism and National Revival

The Prague National Theater, symbol of the national revival

The classicism was an era of European art in the period from 1760 to 1848 with the end of serfdom and a countermovement to the magnificent forms of the Baroque . In relation to literature, it describes poems with themes from antiquity , the styles of that time and their transfer into contemporary literature, and drew its strength primarily from the vocabulary and style of individual authors. These became models of this new cultural trend, whose works became decisive for the development of language and literature in Europe.

Religious freedom and the weakening of censorship under Joseph II in the spirit of the Enlightenment made civil rights and freedom of expression possible. At the end of the 18th and 19th centuries, the national rebirth ( národní obrození ) developed with the desire for independence from the Habsburg monarchy and political independence for the Czech people. At that time, the Czech national movement determined the cultural and political climate in Bohemia. It was under the influence of the incipient Pan-Slavism and personalities from politics and poetry drew attention to the long-ignored language and culture of the Czechs in manifestos and works. They demanded recognition, maintenance and use of the Czech language. The establishment of the National Museum in 1818 and especially the National Theater demonstrated the skills of Czech artists and architects and strengthened the self-confidence of the people. Gelasius Dobner founded scientific Czech historiography with his criticism of Hájek's chronicle.

At the beginning, educated people like the founder of the Czech written language, Josef Dobrovský , dealt scientifically with the cultural and settlement history of the Czech people in Bohemia. Czech grammar has been rewritten and codified on the basis of the highly developed literary language from the 16th century. Chairs for the Czech language were established at the universities and scholarly groups were formed. The Česká expedice des Václav Matěj Kramérius publishing house was supposed to promote Czech literature.

In the second phase of the national renewal, Dobrovský's student Josef Jungmann played a central role. He published overviews of the geniuses of the Czech people, looked for role models in Czech history and wrote himself as an author. His main work is the Czech-German dictionary ( Slovník česko-německý ). The work has a linguistic patriotic background. Jungmann compared Czech to German as equals in order to document the expressiveness of the Czech language. To do this, he took words from Old Slavic texts, reformulated them and adopted reformulations from German, Russian and Polish. His pupil Bernhard Scheinpflug wrote textbooks that became compulsory reading for children aged 6 to 12 after compulsory schooling began . Ján Kollár expressed the idea of ​​Pan-Slavism in the Slávy dcera collection . František Ladislav Čelakovský resorted to Slavic folk songs .

Two other students of Dobrovský, Josef Linda and Václav Hanka , simulated a long-established high culture of the Czech heroic epic . They are considered to be forgers of the so-called Koeniginhof manuscript and the Grünberger manuscript , heroic songs in Czech from the Middle Ages. In the final phase, the national rebirth became a mass movement; even a must in parts of the Czech lower class. Patriotic associations of the middle class and the gymnastics movements of the Sokol were formed, but also scientific societies such as the Matice česká and the Matice moravská were founded. A work of that time that is still popular today is the cookbook Domácí kuchařka by Magdaléna Dobromila Rettigová .

romance

The romantic Karel Hynek Mácha

Compared to other countries, Romanticism and Biedermeier reached Bohemia and Moravia with a time lag and had a pioneer in Adalbert Stifter (1805–1868), who was born in South Bohemia .

Karel Hynek Mácha (1810–1836) is considered the most important Czech romantic poet. During his numerous travels he wrote his main work, Máj . Máj consists of four chants and two intermezzi. Mácha used an unusual linguistic design here. He brought the Czech language of his time to a very high literary level. His work is a lyrical poem that is highly romantic and highly dramatic. The basic theme of his work is the surrender of the human being, but also the romantic turmoil (love, murder, suicide, fear of death). He was accused of showing too little patriotism, that in his work he only demonstrated his own suffering, that it was too individual. He should do more for the national. It was not until the generation after Mácha that he learned to appreciate his work, and he has been venerated since the second half of the 19th century.

Karel Jaromír Erben was a Czech historian, collector of folk poetry and romantic writer. Just like Mácha, Erben also dealt with the Czech national poetry, especially with Czech history. He edited some of Jan Hus's writings. His most famous publications are:

  • Kytice z pověstí národních (Bouquet of national legends): 12 ballads, homeland is compared to the thyme bush that grows on the mother's grave. Guilt and punishment for vanity and greed.
  • Výbrané báje a pověsti národní jiných větví slovánských (Selected sagas and folk legends of other Slavic tribes, 1869)
  • Sto prostonárodních pohádek a pověstí slovanských v nářečích původních (One hundred fairy tales and legends of the common people in the original dialects, 1865), 1905 ed. as České pohádky by Václav Tille .

Josef Kajetán Tyl was one of the most important Czech playwrights. He was also a playwright and prose writer. In the years from 1845 to 1850 he founded the Czech drama. It was at this time that his dramatic pictures from everyday life emerged, such as Des Arson's Daughter , the dramatic fairy tales The Bagpiper from Strakonitz and the historical dramas The Miners from Kuttenberg , Jan Hus or Drahomira and their Sons . But also comedies and magic games Fidlovačka or Jiříkovo vidění . He also wrote the text for the Czech anthem “ Kde domov můj ”.

The children's book Die Käferchen ( Broučci , 1876) by the pastor of the Bohemian brothers Jan Karafiát (1846–1929) is a long-seller of the didactic , romantic view of life, which is still being published today.

Realism and naturalism

Božena Němcová

A transition from Romanticism to Realism can already be seen in Božena Němcová , for example in her famous and still widely read novel Babička (The Grandmother). Well-known realists in Czech literature include Jan Neruda , especially with the stories of the Lesser Town in Prague , Vítězslav Hálek , editor of the Národní listy in 1861, and Karolína Světlá , the first novelist to write the village novel ( Vesnický román ). These three authors include: a. to the poets group of the Májovci , named after Mácha's poem Máj . You are characterized by versatility and you are active as a writer and in journalism. Other authors include a. Teréza Nováková and Karel Václav Rais .

After 1868, Czech literature developed in two directions, some of which overlap. The direction of the group of authors Ruch was national Czech, their publications appeared in the magazines "Osvěta" and "Květy". Her most important representatives include Svatopluk Čech ( The true journey of Mr. Brouček to the moon ), Jakub Arbes with the special genre of Romaneto, e.g. B. Newton's brain , Eliška Krásnohorská , who for the first time put the schooling of girls and women's rights in the foreground and Karel Klostermann , who put the Bohemian Forest and its inhabitants at the center of his work.

The authors of the Lumír group turned away from national interests and towards a cosmopolitan, aesthetic poetry (l'art pour l'art) and are therefore seen as harbingers of modernity. Among them are Jaroslav Vrchlický with Zlomky epopeje , (German: fragments of an epopee), Julius Zeyer ( three legends about the crucifix ) and Václav Beneš Třebízký. Josef Václav Sládek , the editor of the Lumír magazine , is more likely to be assigned to the Ruch authors' movement in his poetic publications; his poetry is strongly based on folk songs.

The main representative of Czech naturalism is Karel Matěj Čapek-Chod with The Avenger Kašpar Len . As is characteristic of naturalism , the fate of the main character shows how the environment and instincts destroy a life. Naturalistic determinism is not as pronounced as in French naturalism.

Turn of the century

Czech modernism

Otokar Březina

From 1894 the magazine Moderní revue appeared in which the decadent writers Jiří Karásek ze Lvovic , Arnošt Procházka and Karel Hlaváček published. The second grouping of modernism was brought into being in 1895 with the Česká moderna manifesto written by Josef Svatopluk Machar and František Xaver Šalda . It proclaims artistic freedom and individuality and the detachment from patriotic tendencies and nationalism. Furthermore, the representatives openly advocate the emancipation of women and universal suffrage. The signatories of the manifesto include Otokar Březina , with his poems of cosmic harmony, and Vilém Mrštík . Antonín Sova wrote atmospheric natural poems and is the most important Czech impressionist , but turns to symbolism in other poems .

The grouping of rebels or strikers ( buřiči after the poetry book of the same name by Viktor Dyk ) rejected symbolism and decadence and called for attitude and struggle. The strikers include Stanislav Kostka Neumann , Karel Toman and František Gellner (After Us The Flood). Petr Bezruč's concern was primarily the oppression of the population in peripheral Silesia .

A lively scene of coffee house literature emerged in Prague . German-speaking writers such as Gustav Meyrink ( Der Golem ), Egon Erwin Kisch , Max Brod and Friedrich Torberg also shaped literary and journalistic life in Prague. The “Continental”, the “ Café Arco ”, the “Café Union” and the “ Café Slavia ” became known as literary cafés . Franz Kafka , who emerged from the Prague circle around Max Brod, to which Felix Weltsch , Oskar Baum and Ludwig Winder also belonged, achieved world fame . The “Wefa” association comprised many authors who are hardly known today, such as Friedrich Adler . Rainer Maria Rilke , Meyrink, who had work to do in Prague, and the young Franz Werfel belonged to another association, the neo-romantic district of Jung-Prag .

Pre-war avant-garde

The avant-garde wants to capture the new technical and social developments in literary terms. In 1911 she founded the group of visual artists Mánes , which, in addition to the visual artists of Cubism such as Emil Filla and Bohumil Kubišta, also included writers such as František Langer , Josef and Karel Čapek and his father-in-law Karel Scheinpflug . Together with Stanislav Kostka Neumann and Otakar Theer they published the "Almanach na rok 1914" (Almanac about the year 1914). Views on literature, poetry, painting, architecture and translations of new French poetry were published in this collection.

The First World War

The good soldier Švejk

The First World War marked a turning point in the existing culture. In 1914 the masses were mobilized and the war was mechanized. Politicians like Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and writers like Josef Svatopluk Machar and Viktor Dyk were suppressed and commemorations for Jan Hus were banned. The Czech writers called for national independence for their homeland in the so-called “May Manifesto”. The war situation or political situation caused a relapse into the national-patriotic theme, as can be seen in Viktor Dyks Země mluví (The earth speaks). Czech soldiers deserted and switched to the enemy and formed the so-called revolutionary army . Jaroslav Hašek was a well-known deserter . His literature Osudy dobrého vojáka Švejka za svetové války ( Eng . The good soldier Schwejk ), which was initially labeled as “inferior” , later became a worldwide success.

Interwar period

The Devětsil movement

The Devětsil (= nine times strong or butterbur ) was a left-wing group of the Czech avant-garde . The name is said to come from the brothers Karel and Josef Čapek . They brought the artist association in connection with growth that was seen as indestructible. After the establishment of Czechoslovakia in 1918, poets, film directors, painters, architects and musicians gathered for a meeting on October 5, 1920 and founded this group. The members worked with the stylistic devices of proletarian art , magical realism and later poetism . The artists' union had an influence on artistic life in Bohemia and Moravia. His motto was: “Na tváři lehký žal, / hluboký v srdci smích”. Well-known Devětsil members were Jaroslav Seifert , Vítězslav Nezval , František Halas , Konstantin Biebl , Vladislav Vančura and Karel Teige .

Karel Čapek

Famous to this day for their utopias and anti-utopias are the brothers Josef and Karel Čapek , both Czech writers. Josef was also a painter, graphic artist and photographer. He illustrated most of his brother Karel's works. He is also famous as the originator of the word " robot ", which Karel used in his play " RUR ". Josef published numerous plays and stories together with his brother. Karel devoted himself to drama, realism and mainly utopian literature . In his fantastic utopian novels he describes his view of the development of human society. His works are prime examples of the Czech language and Slavic humor. Mention should be made:

  • Tovarná na Absolutno (Factory of the Absolute, 1922): Karburator enables cheap energy generation, by-product of the absolute - God in chemically pure form - leads to world war. No continuous storyline - episodes that were written individually for inserts in Lidové noviny.
  • Krakatit (1924): chemist develops explosives that can destroy the world. He therefore comes under the influence of the great powers. There is an explosion, but the hero meets God .
  • RUR (Rossum's Universal Robots, 1920): became a worldwide success and has been translated into 30 languages.
  • Válka s mloky ( The War with the Newts , 1936) dystopian novel

surrealism

This art movement originated in Paris in the early 1920s . She tried to assess and explain the unreal and dreamlike of social reality as well as the depths of the unconscious. Characteristics of surrealism are mystifications of the absurd, alienation and automatism (spontaneous writing techniques). Well-known Czech surrealists were Richard Weiner , who also lived in Paris, ( Hra doopravdy ), Vítězslav Nezval and Karel Teige . Karel Hynek Mácha was a great inspiration for her with Ani labuť ani Lůna ( Eng . Neither swan nor moon, 1936).

Literature at the time of the Protectorate

The period from 1939 to May 8, 1945 of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was an occupation of the German Reich and ended with the end of the Second World War. The ruling Reich Protectors could not suppress the spread of Czech culture and literature. This applied not only to the exile's literature, but also largely to the publications at home. Special mention should be made of Jan Scheinost (1896–1964) with his reconciling attitude between Germans and Czechs and also Jaroslav Durych (1886–1962), who were imprisoned for their attitude after 1945. The Skupina 42 (group 42) around Jiří Kolář , Josef Kainar , Jan Hanč and Ivan Blatný came from a young generation that spoke up. Some striking works and persecuted authors during the Protectorate period were:

  • Josef Čapek , (died in the concentration camp one month before the end of the war in 1945): Básne z koncentracního tábora (poems from the concentration camp)
  • Julius Fučík : Reportáž, psaná na oprátce (German report, written below the strand, 1946). He resisted National Socialism by imprisoning and living with fellow prisoners. It was propagated and copied as an idol by the subsequent Stalinism
  • Jiří Orten : died in 1942 at the age of 23. It is said that he was hit by a German ambulance and that, as a Jew , he was refused care.
  • Vladimír Holan : the epic poem Terezka Planetová (1943)
  • Jiří Weil : Living with the Star (1949)

Literature from the socialist period from 1948 to 1989

After the communist putsch in 1948 under Stalinist politics, freedom of expression was restricted again and critical authors were banned from publishing, some went into exile. Past literary trends that did not conform to the communist ideal were censored and campaigned against. The Socialist Realism became the binding unit style. There were hardly any novels published; writers devoted themselves more to journalism and poetry. In the 1950s, distinctive lyric texts aroused interest that dealt with problems of everyday life, everyday life. Josef Škvorecký and Arnošt Lustig are among these writers. "Catacomb literature" was an oral or minimally distributed literature called. In this time of material and cultural impoverishment there was no samizdat structure; this was only created in the 1970s. In the 1960s a number of small theaters such as the Semafor , the Theater am Geländer or the Jára Cimrmans Theater were built .

Bohumil Hrabal

Important prose writers who published more or less restrictedly in official publishers were Bohumil Hrabal , Ladislav Fuks , Jan Drda , Vladimír Páral , Vladimír Neff , Jiří Mucha , Jan Otčenášek , Josef Nesvadba , Eduard Petiška , Vladimír Körner and Ota Pavel . Bohumil Hrabal's unmistakable style is characterized by a mixture of colloquial language with highly literary means and an unrestrained and uninterrupted flow of speech. Poetic comparisons, obscenisms and coarseness with delicate descriptions adorned his works. Novels like I served the English king or too loud loneliness made him famous and found their readers.

Jaroslav Seifert , Czech Nobel Prize Laureate in Literature (Photo by Hana Hamplová 1981)

After the crackdown on the Prague Spring , numerous writers went into exile. Josef Škvorecký ( Zbabělci , Prima sezóna , Příběh inženýra lidských duší ) founded the publishing house 68 Publishers in Canada , which became the most important organ of exile literature. Milan Kundera had worldwide success with his prose. His most famous work is The unbearable lightness of being . Other authors in exile are Pavel Kohout , Ivan Diviš , Jan Křesadlo , Ludvík Aškenazy , Jiří Gruša , Libuše Moníková and Egon Hostovský . Ludvík Vaculík and Ivan Klíma published in Samizdat . With the playwright and essayist Václav Havel (1936–2011), 9th President of Czechoslovakia and 1st in the Czech Republic , the country had one of the most important and successful personalities of the 20th century. In 1984 Jaroslav Seifert was the only Czech so far to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature .

present

After the Velvet Revolution in November 1989, democracy was restored and censorship completely lifted. The official communist cultural organs disappeared from the scene. Free writers 'associations such as the Obec spisovatelů ("Writers' Community ") or the re-established Czech PEN Club were formed and the publishing industry was restructured in a market economy , with numerous new foundations. Writers who were banned until then were able to publish again without restriction and there was a wave of publications. Theater and Czech film are experiencing a similar upheaval .

Jáchym Topol
Radka Denemarková (2013)

The older generation of literary authors who previously published in samizdat or in exile include Jiří Kratochvil , Iva Hercíková , Sylvie Richterová and Patrik Ouředník . Jáchym Topol was already part of the literary and musical underground before 1989 . His breakthrough came in 1994 with the novel Sestra (The Sister), in which, from the perspective of a relative in the underground, he tells details from the time after the political turning point of 1989, alienated. The bestselling authors include Petr Šabach , whose humorous and satirical novels have served as the basis for films on several occasions, and Michal Viewegh . In Michal Ajvaz's novels , Prague appears as a magical and grotesque setting. The literature of Karol Sidon and Marek Toman expresses Jewish culture.

From the 2000s onwards, authors such as Jan Balabán , the travel writer Josef Formánek , Hana Androníková , Emil Hakl , Jaroslav Rudiš and Petra Hůlová , who became popular in the Mongolian steppe with her debut novel Brief Outline of My Life . The history of violence, especially of women, is a central theme for Radka Denemarková . Successful young authors are currently for example Marek Šindelka , Kateřina Tučková and Anna Bolavá .

Literary prizes

See also

literature

  • Jiří Holý: Czech Literature 1945-2000. Trends, authors, materials. A manual. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2011, ISBN 978-3-447-06575-7 .
  • Jiří Holý: History of Czech Literature in the 20th Century. Edition Praesenz, Vienna 2003, ISBN 3-7069-0145-5 .
  • Antonín Měšťan: History of Czech Literature in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Böhlau, Cologne / Vienna 1984, ISBN 3-412-01284-X .
  • Walter Schamschula: History of Czech Literature. 3 volumes. Böhlau, Cologne.
    • Vol. 1: From the beginning to the time of the Enlightenment. Cologne 1990, ISBN 3-412-01590-3 .
    • Vol. 2: From Romanticism to the First World War. Cologne 1996, ISBN 3-412-02795-2 .
    • Vol. 3: From the founding of the republic to the present. Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-412-07495-0 .
  • Wolfgang F. Schwarz: "Some developmental traits of Czech literature after 1989. Literature - literary studies - change of function", in: Reinhard Lauer, ed., The Slavic literatures - today. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2000, pp. 117-125, ISBN 978-3447043106 .
  • Wolfgang F. Schwarz / Andreas Ohme / Jan Jiroušek (eds.): Approaches to literary and cultural studies bohemian studies. 2 volumes. G. Olms, Hildesheim / Zurich / New York 2017–2018 (westostpassagen 22.1-2), ISBN 978-3-487-15574-6 , ISBN 978-3-487-15575-3 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Issac ben Mose - Jewish Encyclopedia
  2. ↑ a b Jiří Holý: History of Czech Literature of the 20th Century. Pp. 15-28, 46-49
  3. ↑ Konstantin Kountouroyanis: “ Showing the beauty of Czech literature - In October 1916, the Silesian Songs by Petr Bezruč appeared in German for the first time . For the translator Rudolf Fuchs it was the beginning of a lifelong Czech-German mediation activity “ In: Prager Zeitung (print edition), October 27, 2016, no. 43, page 5, online edition: pragerzeitung.cz , October 27, 2016
  4. ↑ Radka Denemarková: A contribution to the history of joy in Ö1 on February 28, 2019