Czech literature
Encyclopedia
Czech literature is the literature
written by Czechs or other inhabitants of the Czech state, mostly in the Czech language
, although other languages like Old Church Slavonic
, Latin
or German
have been also used, especially in the past. Modern authors from the Czech territory who wrote in other languages (e.g. German) are however sometimes considered separately, thus Franz Kafka
, for example, who wrote in German (though he was also fluent in Czech), is often considered part of Austrian or German literature.
Czech literature is divided into several main time periods: the Middle Ages; the Hussite period; the years of re-Catholicization and the baroque; the Enlightenment and Czech reawakening in the 19th century; the avantgarde of the interwar period; the years under Communism and the Prague Spring; and the literature of the post-Communist Czech Republic. Czech literature and culture played a notable role on at least two occasions when Czech society lived under oppression and little to no political activity was possible. On both of these occasions, in the early 19th century and then again in the 1960s, the Czechs used their cultural and literary effort to create political freedom and to establish a confident, politically aware nation.
to complete the Christianization of the kingdom, created there the first written Slavic language, Old Church Slavonic
, written in the Glagolitic alphabet
. Their translations of Latin liturgy into Slavonic are the earliest surviving literature created in the Czech lands.
After the collapse of Greater Moravia at the end of the 9th century, the political and cultural orientation of the Bohemian lands shifted from Byzantium to Rome. Very little is known about the next two centuries of literary development - fragments of works exist, but many are simply inferred from citations in works found elsewhere. The close of the century heralded the ultimate victory of Latin over Old Church Slavonic as the official language of liturgy and culture in Moravia and Bohemia, and cultural alliance shifted from east to west. The Legend of Christian, written in Latin verse in the latter half of the 10th century, describing the lives of Saints Ludmila
and Wenceslas is the greatest surviving work; its authenticity however is under some dispute.
In the Přemyslid Bohemia of the 12th and early 13th century, all preserved literary works are written in Latin. Historical chronicles and hagiographies
comprise the majority of works preserved. Bohemian hagiographies focus exclusively on Bohemian saints (Sts. Ludmila, Wenceslas, Procopius
, Cyril and Methodius, and Adalbert
), although numerous legends about Bohemian saints were also written by foreign authors. The most important chronicle of the period is the Chronica Boemorum (Bohemian Chronicle) by Kosmas
, though it does approach its topics with then-contemporary politics in mind, and attempts to legitimize the ruling dynasty. Kosmas' work was updated and extended by several authors in the latter part of the 12th and during the 13th centuries.
During the first part of the 13th century, the Přemyslid rulers of Bohemia expanded their political and economic influence westward and came into contact with the political and cultural kingdoms of Western Europe. This cultural exchange was evident in literature through the introduction of German courtly poetry, or Minnesang
, in the latter part of the 13th century. After the murder of Wenceslas III and the subsequent upheavals in the kingdom in 1306, however, the Bohemian nobles distanced themselves from Western culture and looked for literature in their native language. Despite this, German remained an important literary language in Bohemia until the 19th century. This new literature in Czech consisted largely of epic poetry of two types: the legend and the knightly epic, both based on apocryphal tales from the Bible, as well as hagiographic legends of earlier periods. Prose was also first developed during this period: administrative and instructional texts, which necessitated the development of a more extensive and specialized vocabulary; the first Czech-Latin dictionaries date from this time. Extensive chronicles, of which the Chronicle of Dalimil
and Chronicon Aulae Regiae (the Zbraslav Chronicle) are the most striking examples, and artistic prose (e.g. Smil Flaška z Pardubic and Johannes von Saaz) were also written.
revolution of the 15th century created a definite break in the literary evolution of Czech literature and forms its own separate history within Czech literature. The main aim of this literature was to communicate and argue for a specific religious doctrine and its form was generally prose. Jan Hus
' theological writing first appears at the beginning of the 15th century; he wrote first in Latin, later in Czech, and this divide remained for much of the later period: poetry and intellectual prose used primarily Latin, whereas popular prose was written in Czech or German. Hus' writings center on technical, theological questions; however, he did publish a set of his Czech sermons and created rules of orthography and grammar that would be used to create the foundations of modern Czech in the 17th and 18th centuries. Only fragments remain of the literary works of the radical Taborite
faction - these were generally Latin apologia defending the Taborite doctrine (Mikuláš Biskupec z Pelhřimova, Petr Chelčický
). In general, Hussite writings differed from the preceding era by their focus on social questions - their audience consisted of the lower and lower middle classes. Works defending Catholicism and attacking the Hussite utraquists were also written, one example being Jan Rokycana's works. The Hussite period for the first time also truly developed the genre of Czech religious songs as a replacement for Latin hymns and liturgy, e.g. the Jistebnický kancionál, the Jistebnice Hymnal.
After the election of George of Poděbrady
to the Czech throne following the Hussite wars, a new cultural wave swept into Bohemia. Humanism
saw in the classics of antiquity an ideal for literature and culture. The main feature of the literature of this period is the competition between Catholics writing in Latin, e.g. Bohuslav Hasištejnský z Lobkovic
and Jan Dubravius
) and Protestants writing in Czech, e.g. Viktorin Kornel z Všehrd and Václav Hájek. New literary devices incited scholars, e.g. Veleslavín
, to construct a more complex grammatical structure, based on Latin, as well as an influx of loan words. Gutenberg's printing press
rendered books and pamphlets more accessible, which slowly changed literature's status in society.
branches. Unlike in other European countries of the time, the nobility in Bohemia was not a part of the literary audience and thus this split of literary effort led to a certain lack of development and stagnation of Czech baroque literature in comparison to other European countries of the time, especially in genres that were written for noble courts. The largest personality of Czech evangelical baroque writing is John Commenius, who spent his youth in Bohemia but was forced into exile later in life. He was a pedagogue, theologian, reformer of education, and philosopher; his works include grammars, theoretical tracts on education, and works on theology. With his death in the late 17th century, Protestant literature in the Czech language virtually disappeared. Catholic baroque works span two types: religious poetry such as that of Adam Michna z Otradovic, Fridrich Bridel and Václav Jan Rosa, and religious prose writings (i.e. homiletic prose and hagiographies
), and historical accounts (Bohuslav Balbín
), as well as the Jesuit St. Wenceslas Bible
.
system and supported a new religious and ideological tolerance. Enlightened classicism
emerged, which sought to apply the principles of rational science to all aspects of daily life. A national culture and literature in one's own national language began to be seen as a prerequisite for the unification of a nation. In literature, this constituted a renewed interest in prose novels (e.g. Matěj Václav Kramerius), in Czech history and in the historical development of Czech culture (e.g. Josef Dobrovský
, who re-codified the grammar of the Czech language and Antonín Jaroslav Puchmayer, who systematically set out to develop a Czech poetic style). The literary audience evolved from priests and monks to the laity and general public and literature began to be seen as a vehicle of artistic expression. Bohemia and Moravia, however, remained within the sphere of Austrian and German cultural influence. The new national literature thus firstly mimicked popular German genres and would only later evolve into an independent creative effort; this was especially true for drama
, e.g. Václav Kliment Klicpera
.
, but relaxed the strict separation between the genres and turned away from didactic genres toward more lyric, folk-inspired works (e.g. Ján Kollár
and František Čelakovský
.) It was during this period that the idea of a truly national literature and culture developed, as a rejection of Bernard Bolzano
's vision of a bi-lingual and bi-cultural Czech-German state. The perhaps greatest figure of this era is Josef Jungmann
, who translated many classics of world literature and spent his life establishing Czech literature as a serious, rich literature capable of great development. František Palacký
and Pavel Jozef Šafárik
took up the challenge of reexamining Czech history. As part of the effort to establish a pedigree for Czech literature and culture, Czech historians of the time sought evidence of heroic epics of the Middle Ages. They appeared to find such evidence in the Rukopis královédvorský and Rukopis zelenohorský (the Dvůr Králové Manuscript and the Zelená Hora Manuscript, respectively), although both were later proven forgeries.
By the 1830s, the foundations of Czech literature were laid and authors now began to focus more on the artistic merits of their work and less on developing the idea of Czech literature and culture as a whole. During this time period two main types of literature were produced: Biedermeier
literature, which strove to educate the readers and encourage them to be loyal to the Austro-Hungarian Empire (e.g. Karel Jaromír Erben
and Božena Němcová
), and romanticism
, which emphasized the freedom of the individual and focused on subjectivity and the subconscious (e.g. Karel Hynek Mácha
.) These authors were generally published in either newspapers or in the literary magazine Květy (Blossoms) published by Josef Kajetán Tyl
.
The year 1848 brought to the fore a new generation of Czech authors who followed in the footsteps of Mácha, and published their work in the new almanac Máj (May) (e.g. Vítězslav Hálek
, Karolina Světlá
and Jan Neruda
). These authors rejected the narrow ideal of a purely national culture and favored one that incorporated Czech literature into European culture and drew inspiration from the progress made outside of the Czech lands. Their work, however, also commented on the encroachment of industrialization and focused increasingly on the simple life as opposed to the unfettered romantic ideal.
The May generation was followed by the neo-romantics
, who continued in the romantic tradition, but also incorporated more contemporary styles: realism
, Symbolism
, and decadence
. Three periods are apparent: the first reacted to the disappointment due to the lack of political and social progress during the 1870s (e.g. Václav Šolc); the second was the great return to poetry, especially epic poetry (e.g. Josef Václav Sládek); and the third focused on prose (e.g. Alois Jirásek
).
In conversation with the neo-romantics, the next generation of authors leaned toward realism and naturalism
, the ordinary and banal. They favored contemporary subjects over historical ones, and sought to deemphasize the personal voice of the author in comparison to the often highly colored speech of the characters. Two main topics were of interest: the exploration of the Czech village and the extent to which it remained an oasis of good morals (Jan Herben, Karel Václav Rais
, Alois Mrštík); and Prague
, especially the life of the lower classes (Ignát Herrman, Karel Matěj Čapek Chod).
The last literary generation of the 19th century signaled a decided break with the past and the advent of modernism
- after the wave of optimism in the wake of the French Revolution
at the beginning of the century, the lack of progress in implementing these ideals of freedom and brotherhood led to both a skepticism toward the possibility of ever achieving these ideals, and renewed efforts to do so. The common link between authors of this generation is their adherence to a particular style over their own voices, and their often very critical perspectives on the work of the previous generations. The modernists also inaugurated the cult of the artist, and this period saw the birth of the literary critic as an independent profession, as an ally of the artist, helping to both define and present work to the public (František Xaver Šalda). Notable poets of this period drew on the works and translations of the poet Jaroslav Vrchlický
and include, among others, Josef Svatopluk Machar
, Antonín Sova
, Otokar Březina
, and Karel Hlaváček
); prose authors include Vilém Mrštík, Růžena Svobodová, and Josef Karel Šlejhar.
, Northern Europe
, and Russia
intensified, and new demands were laid on the cultural knowledge of authors and their audience.
The new generation of poets distanced themselves from both the neo-romantics and the modernists: led by S. K. Neumann, their work focused on concrete reality, free of any pathos, or complicated symbolism. Many of the new poets (Karel Toman
, Fráňa Šrámek
, Viktor Dyk
, František Gellner
, Petr Bezruč
) allied themselves with anarchism
and the women's movement, although this influence waned throughout the decade. In prose, the work of the modernist generation was only now coming into its own, but the different stylistic waves that affected their prose are also evident in the work of the new generation — naturalism
(A. M Tilšchová); impressionism
(Šrámek, Gellner, Jiří Mahen
, Jan Opolský, Rudolf Těsnohlídek
); the Vienna Secession
(Růžena Svobodová, Jan Karásek).
After their rebellious first decade, the new generation of poets (Toman, Neumann, Šrámek) turned toward nature and life in their work. This decade also marked the return of Catholic authors (Josef Florian
, Jakub Deml
, Jaroslav Durych
, Josef Váchal
) and the first entrance of the avant-garde
into Czech literature, seeking to document the rapid changes in society and modernization. The first avantgarde style was neoclassicism
, which soon gave way to cubism
, futurism
, and civilism (S. K. Neumann, the young brothers Čapek).
World War I
brought with it a wave of repression of the newly emergent Czech culture, and this meant a return to the past, to traditional Czech values and history: the Hussites and the Awakening. The war, however, also precipitated a crisis of values, of faith in progress, religion, and belief, which found outlet in expressionism
(Ladislav Klíma
, Jakub Deml
, Richard Weiner
), civilism (Čapek brothers) and visions of a universal brotherhood of mankind (Ivan Olbracht
, Karel Matěj Čapek Chod, F. X. Šalda).
The interwar period
, coinciding with the First Republic, is one of the apogees of Czech literature — the new state brought with it a plurality of thinking, religion, and philosophy, leading to a great flowering of literature and culture. The first major theme of the interwar period was the war — the inhumanity, violence, and terror, but also the heroic actions of the Czech Legion (Rudolf Medek
, Josef Kopta
, František Langer
, Jaroslav Hašek
). A new generation of poets ushered in the return of the avantgarde: poetry of the heart (early Jiří Wolker
, Zdeněk Kalista
) and naivism (Čapek brothers, Josef Hora
, Jaroslav Seifert
, and S. K. Neumann). The avantgarde soon split, however, into the radical proletarian socialist and communist authors (Wolker, Seifert, Neumann, Karel Teige
, Antonín Matěj Píša, Hora, Jindřich Hořejší), the Catholics (Durych, Deml), and to the centrists (brothers Čapek, Dyk, Fischer, Šrámek, Langer, Jan Herben). A specifically Czech literary style, poetism, was developed by the group Devětsil
(Vítězslav Nezval
, Jaroslav Seifert, Konstantin Biebl
, Karel Teige
), which argued that poetry should pervade everyday life, that poetry is inseparable from daily life, that everyone is a poet. Prose of the interwar period distanced itself even more from the traditional, single perspective prose of the previous century, in favor of multiple perspectives, subjectivity, and fractured narratives. Utopian and fantastic
literature came into the forefront (Jan Weiss
, Karel Čapek
, Eduard Bass
, Jiří Haussmann), as well as the genres of documentary prose, which sought to paint as accurate a picture of the world as possible (Karel Čapek, Egon Erwin Kisch
, Jiří Weil
, Rudolf Těsnohlídek
, Eduard Bass, Jaromír John, Karel Poláček
); lyrical, imaginative prose that allied itself with the poetic poetry of the time (Karel Konrád, Jaroslav Jan Paulík, Vladislav Vančura
); and Catholically-oriented prose (Jaroslav Durych, Jan Čep
, Jakub Deml). The drama of the time also followed the same stylistic evolution as poetry and prose — expressionism, followed by a return to realistic, civilian theater (František Langer, Karel Čapek). Along with avantgarde poetry, avantgarde theater also flourished, focusing on removing the barriers between actors and audience, breaking the illusion of the unity of a theatrical work (Osvobozené divadlo
, Jiří Voskovec
and Jan Werich
).
After the heady optimism of the 1920s, the 1930s brought with them an economic crisis, which helped spur a political crisis: both the left (Communist) and right (anti-German and fascist) parties radicalized and threatened the stability of the democracy. This led the authors of the time to focus on public matters and spirituality; Catholicism gained in importance (Kalista, Karel Schulz
, Halas, Vančura, Durych). Changes were apparent first in poetry: the new generation of poets (Bohuslav Reynek
, Vilém Závada, František Halas
, Vladimír Holan
, Jan Zahradníček
) began as poetists, but their work is much darker, full of images of death and fear. The older avantgarde (Teige, Nezval) also turned away from poetism to surrealism
, and a third group (Hora, Seifert, František Hrubín
) turned instead to lyricism, to quiet, memory-filled poetry. Prose, after the years of realistic journalism, turned to epics, existential novels, and subjective perspectives. Folk-inspired ballads (Josef Čapek
, K. Čapek, Vančura, Ivan Olbracht
), social-themed novels (Olbracht, Vančura, Poláček, Marie Majerová, Marie Pujmanová), and psychological novels (Jarmila Glazarová, Egon Hostovský
, Jaroslav Havlíček
) appeared. During this period, Karel Čapek wrote his most politically charged (and well-known) plays in response to the rise of fascist dictators. After the Munich Agreement
in 1938, literature once more mirrored the current political present and called for national solidarity and a return to the past.
The German protectorate
and World War II
left its mark on Czech literature — many of the authors of the interwar generations did not survive or went into exile. During 1938–1940, society was still relatively free, but during 1941, most of the free newspapers, magazines, and publishers were shut down, and authors were silenced. WWII thus marks the origin of the 3-way split of literature that continued throughout the socialist years until 1989: domestic published, domestic illegal, and exile literature. As a result of the war, all forms of literature turned even more toward tradition and history: poetry became more subdued, and greater emphasis was laid upon language as an expression of national identity (Hora, Halas, Seifert, Nezval), and on spirituality and religious values (Hrubín, Závada, Zahradníček, Holan). The same occurred in prose: gone were the experimental works of the interwar period, but the social and psychological novel (Václav Řezáč, Vladimír Neff
, Miloš Václav Kratochvíl) remained. The historical novel marked a new resurgence (Kratochvíl, Vančura, Durych, Schulz) as a way to write about the present while cloaking it in historical novels, as did prose inspired by folk tales and folk culture (Josef Štefan Kubín, Jan Drda
, Vančura, Jaromír John, Zdeněk Jirotka
). The generation of authors that debuted during the war and shortly afterwards (Jiří Orten
, Group 42
) all shared a similar harrowing experience of the war; their works all bear the hallmark of tragedy, existentialist thought, and the focus on the person as an isolated being.
Czech postwar literature is tightly intertwined with the political state of postwar Czechoslovakia; as during the war, literature broke apart into three main branches: domestic published, domestic illegal, and exile literature. Literature under the communist regime became the refuge of freedom and democracy, and literary works and authors were valued not only for their literary merits, but also for their struggle against the regime. The literature of the entire postwar period thus enjoyed great attention, despite its often precarious position. During the first three years after the end of the war (1945–1948), however, literature maintained a certain degree of freedom, although the strengthening of the extreme left gradually pushed out of the public sphere first the Catholic authors (Deml, Durych, Čep, Zahradníček), then the moderate Communists.
1948 brought the ultimate victory of the Communists, and the subsequent end of civil freedoms — any literature contrary to the official perspective was banned and the authors persecuted. The official literary style became socialist realism
and all avantgarde leanings we suppressed. Many authors went into exile — to Germany
, the U.S., the Vatican
. Of those that stayed, many chose to write in secret and remain unpublished (the surrealists (Zbyněk Havlíček, Karel Hynek), Holan, Zahradníček, Jiří Kolář
, Josef Jedlička
, Jan Hanč, Jiřina Hauková
, Josef Škvorecký
, Egon Bondy
, Jan Zábrana
, Bohumil Hrabal
). Most of their works were published only during the 1960s and 1990s.
Only at the end of the 1950s did the tight censorial control begin to ease — some poets were allowed to publish again (Hrubín, Oldřich Mikulášek, Jan Skácel
) and a new literary group formed around the magazine Květen, striving to break the hold of socialist realism (Miroslav Holub
, Karel Šiktanc, Jiří Šotola). Prose lagged behind poetry for much of the period, with the exception of Edvard Valenta
and Josef Škvorecký
. Shorter works, such as the short story also became popular again.
The 1960s brought with them the beginnings of reform efforts in the Communist party, and the subsequent liberalization of literature and increasing prestige of authors. Beginning with 1964, literature began to broaden in scope beyond the officially approved style. In poetry, intimate lyricism became popular (Vladimír Holan
), as well as epic poetry (Karel Šiktanc, Hrubín), and the realism of Group 42
. In prose, new authors abandoned polemics about socialism and instead turned toward personal and civic morality (Jan Trefulka
, Milan Kundera
, Ivan Klíma
, Pavel Kohout
), the theme of war and occupation (Jiří Weil
, Arnošt Lustig
), especially the fate of Jews. Bohumil Hrabal
became the most prominent of the contemporary prose authors, with his works full of colloquialisms and non-traditional narrative structures, and the absence of official moral frameworks. Toward the end of the decade, novels of disillusionment, skepticism, and a need to find one's place in the world and history begin to appear (Vaculík, M. Kundera, Hrubín), as do modern historical novels (Oldřich Daněk
, Jiří Šotola, Vladimír Korner
, Ota Filip
). The 1960s also brought the debuts of a new generation of authors who grew up during the excesses of Stalinism
, and thus had no ideals about world utopias — their works dealt not with changing the world, but with living in it: authenticity
, responsibility both moral and literary. These included the poets Jiří Gruša
, Josef Hanzlík, Antonín Brousek, Jiří Kuběna, and playwrights Ivan Vyskočil
, Jiří Šlitr
, Václav Havel
, Milan Uhde
, Josef Topol. The close of the reform years also saw a return to experiments: surrealism
(Milan Nápravník, Vratislav Effenberger
), nonsense
poetry (Emanuel Frynta), experimental poetry (Josef Hiršal
, Bohumila Grögerová, Emil Juliš), abstract poetry and dada
(Ladislav Novák), gritty realistic prose (Jan Hanč, Vladimír Páral
) and ornate, symbol filled fantasy (Věra Linhartová). The era of literary freedom and experiments, which reached its apogee during the Prague Spring
of 1968, came to an abrupt end the same summer, with the Soviet invasion and subsequent "normalization."
Normalization reinstated the severe censorship of the 1950s, shut down most of the literary magazines and newspapers, and silenced authors who did not conform. More than ever before, literature split into the legal, illegal, and exile branches. Many authors fled to the U.S. and Canada
(Josef Škvorecký
), Germany
(Peroutka), Austria (Kohout), France
(M. Kundera), but they generally did not fare much better than their contemporaries in Czechoslovakia, largely due to the absence of a readership. Their works became better known only through translations. The work of experimental, avantgarde authors who continued to publish as "official" authors generally shrank in quality, conformed to the official dogma, although in comparison to the 1950s, the literature was less rigid, less wooden. On the border between official and unofficial literature stood authors of historical novels (Korner, Karel Michal
), and well as Bohumil Hrabal
and Ota Pavel
. Seifert, Mikulášek, Skácel were all also barred from publishing; their work was published as samizdat
, small underground presses that hand-published much of the work of the underground, illegal authors. Ludvík Vaculík
, Jan Vladislav, and Václav Havel
and Jan Lopatka organized the largest samizdat editions. It was many of these illegal authors who signed Charta 77 and were jailed for doing so. Samizdat literature again returned to Catholicism, to memoirs and diaries of daily life (Vaculík). Memory and history were also chief motifs of samizdat literature (Karel Šiktanc, Jiřina Hauková
), as were brutally honest, factual testimonials of daily life (Ivan Martin Jirous
). The new literary generation of the 1980s was marked by the need to rebel, to act outside of the bounds of society — their work draws on the war generation (Group 42), and is often brutal, aggressive, and vulgar (Jáchym Topol
, Petr Placák, Zuzana Brabcová); postmodernism
also influenced literature as a whole (Jiří Kratochvil, Daniela Hodrová).
The fall of communism in 1989 marked another break in Czech literature — plurality and freedom returned. The works of many of the illegal and exiled authors working under the communist regime were published for the first time (for instance Jan Křesadlo
and Ivan Blatný
) and many of them returned to public life and publishing. Although some critics would say that contemporary Czech literature (since 1989) is relatively marginalised in comparison with Czech film-making, writers such as Petr Šabach
, Ivan Martin Jirous
, Jáchym Topol
, Miloš Urban
, Patrik Ouředník
, and Petra Hůlová
are public figures and sell books in large numbers. Contemporary Czech poetry, in Petr Borkovec can boast a poet of European standing.
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
written by Czechs or other inhabitants of the Czech state, mostly in the Czech language
Czech language
Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
, although other languages like Old Church Slavonic
Old Church Slavonic
Old Church Slavonic or Old Church Slavic was the first literary Slavic language, first developed by the 9th century Byzantine Greek missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius who were credited with standardizing the language and using it for translating the Bible and other Ancient Greek...
, Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
or German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
have been also used, especially in the past. Modern authors from the Czech territory who wrote in other languages (e.g. German) are however sometimes considered separately, thus Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka was a culturally influential German-language author of short stories and novels. Contemporary critics and academics, including Vladimir Nabokov, regard Kafka as one of the best writers of the 20th century...
, for example, who wrote in German (though he was also fluent in Czech), is often considered part of Austrian or German literature.
Czech literature is divided into several main time periods: the Middle Ages; the Hussite period; the years of re-Catholicization and the baroque; the Enlightenment and Czech reawakening in the 19th century; the avantgarde of the interwar period; the years under Communism and the Prague Spring; and the literature of the post-Communist Czech Republic. Czech literature and culture played a notable role on at least two occasions when Czech society lived under oppression and little to no political activity was possible. On both of these occasions, in the early 19th century and then again in the 1960s, the Czechs used their cultural and literary effort to create political freedom and to establish a confident, politically aware nation.
Middle Ages
Literature in the Czech lands originates in the 8th century AD, in the kingdom of Greater Moravia. The Saints Konstantin (i.e. Cyril) and Methodius, sent by the Byzantine Emperor Michael IIIMichael III
Michael III , , Byzantine Emperor from 842 to 867. Michael III was the third and traditionally last member of the Amorian-Phrygian Dynasty...
to complete the Christianization of the kingdom, created there the first written Slavic language, Old Church Slavonic
Old Church Slavonic
Old Church Slavonic or Old Church Slavic was the first literary Slavic language, first developed by the 9th century Byzantine Greek missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius who were credited with standardizing the language and using it for translating the Bible and other Ancient Greek...
, written in the Glagolitic alphabet
Glagolitic alphabet
The Glagolitic alphabet , also known as Glagolitsa, is the oldest known Slavic alphabet. The name was not coined until many centuries after its creation, and comes from the Old Slavic glagolъ "utterance" . The verb glagoliti means "to speak"...
. Their translations of Latin liturgy into Slavonic are the earliest surviving literature created in the Czech lands.
After the collapse of Greater Moravia at the end of the 9th century, the political and cultural orientation of the Bohemian lands shifted from Byzantium to Rome. Very little is known about the next two centuries of literary development - fragments of works exist, but many are simply inferred from citations in works found elsewhere. The close of the century heralded the ultimate victory of Latin over Old Church Slavonic as the official language of liturgy and culture in Moravia and Bohemia, and cultural alliance shifted from east to west. The Legend of Christian, written in Latin verse in the latter half of the 10th century, describing the lives of Saints Ludmila
Saint Ludmila
Saint Ludmila is a Czech saint and martyr venerated by the Orthodox and the Roman Catholics. She was born in Mělník as daughter of a Slavic prince Slavibor...
and Wenceslas is the greatest surviving work; its authenticity however is under some dispute.
In the Přemyslid Bohemia of the 12th and early 13th century, all preserved literary works are written in Latin. Historical chronicles and hagiographies
Hagiography
Hagiography is the study of saints.From the Greek and , it refers literally to writings on the subject of such holy people, and specifically to the biographies of saints and ecclesiastical leaders. The term hagiology, the study of hagiography, is also current in English, though less common...
comprise the majority of works preserved. Bohemian hagiographies focus exclusively on Bohemian saints (Sts. Ludmila, Wenceslas, Procopius
Saint Procopius
Saint Procopius may refer to:*Procopius of Scythopolis *Procopius of Sázava *Procopius of Ustiug...
, Cyril and Methodius, and Adalbert
Adalbert of Prague
This article is about St Adalbert of Prague. For other uses, see Adalbert .Saint Adalbert, Czech: ; , , Czech Roman Catholic saint, a Bishop of Prague and a missionary, was martyred in his efforts to convert the Baltic Prussians. He evangelized Poles and Hungarians. St...
), although numerous legends about Bohemian saints were also written by foreign authors. The most important chronicle of the period is the Chronica Boemorum (Bohemian Chronicle) by Kosmas
Cosmas of Prague
Cosmas of Prague was a Bohemian priest, writer and historian born in a noble family in Bohemia. Between 1075 and 1081, he studied in Liège. After his return to Bohemia, he became a priest and married Božetěcha, with whom he probably had a son. In 1086 Cosmas was appointed prebendary of Prague, a...
, though it does approach its topics with then-contemporary politics in mind, and attempts to legitimize the ruling dynasty. Kosmas' work was updated and extended by several authors in the latter part of the 12th and during the 13th centuries.
Minnesang
Minnesang was the tradition of lyric and song writing in Germany which flourished in the 12th century and continued into the 14th century. People who wrote and performed Minnesang are known as Minnesingers . The name derives from the word minne, Middle High German for love which was their main...
, in the latter part of the 13th century. After the murder of Wenceslas III and the subsequent upheavals in the kingdom in 1306, however, the Bohemian nobles distanced themselves from Western culture and looked for literature in their native language. Despite this, German remained an important literary language in Bohemia until the 19th century. This new literature in Czech consisted largely of epic poetry of two types: the legend and the knightly epic, both based on apocryphal tales from the Bible, as well as hagiographic legends of earlier periods. Prose was also first developed during this period: administrative and instructional texts, which necessitated the development of a more extensive and specialized vocabulary; the first Czech-Latin dictionaries date from this time. Extensive chronicles, of which the Chronicle of Dalimil
Chronicle of Dalimil
The Chronicle of Dalimil or Chronicle of so-called Dalimil is the first chronicle or story written in Czech language. It was created in verses by an unknown author at the beginning of the 14th century. The Chronicle compiles information of older Czech chronicles written in Latin and also the...
and Chronicon Aulae Regiae (the Zbraslav Chronicle) are the most striking examples, and artistic prose (e.g. Smil Flaška z Pardubic and Johannes von Saaz) were also written.
The Hussite Era
The HussiteHussite
The Hussites were a Christian movement following the teachings of Czech reformer Jan Hus , who became one of the forerunners of the Protestant Reformation...
revolution of the 15th century created a definite break in the literary evolution of Czech literature and forms its own separate history within Czech literature. The main aim of this literature was to communicate and argue for a specific religious doctrine and its form was generally prose. Jan Hus
Jan Hus
Jan Hus , often referred to in English as John Hus or John Huss, was a Czech priest, philosopher, reformer, and master at Charles University in Prague...
' theological writing first appears at the beginning of the 15th century; he wrote first in Latin, later in Czech, and this divide remained for much of the later period: poetry and intellectual prose used primarily Latin, whereas popular prose was written in Czech or German. Hus' writings center on technical, theological questions; however, he did publish a set of his Czech sermons and created rules of orthography and grammar that would be used to create the foundations of modern Czech in the 17th and 18th centuries. Only fragments remain of the literary works of the radical Taborite
Taborite
The Taborites were members of a religious community considered heretical by the Catholic Church. The Taborites were centered on the Bohemian city of Tábor during the Hussite Wars in the 15th century. The religious reform movement in Bohemia splintered into various religious sects...
faction - these were generally Latin apologia defending the Taborite doctrine (Mikuláš Biskupec z Pelhřimova, Petr Chelčický
Petr Chelcický
Petr Chelčický was a Christian and political leader and author in 15th century Bohemia .-Chelčický's background:...
). In general, Hussite writings differed from the preceding era by their focus on social questions - their audience consisted of the lower and lower middle classes. Works defending Catholicism and attacking the Hussite utraquists were also written, one example being Jan Rokycana's works. The Hussite period for the first time also truly developed the genre of Czech religious songs as a replacement for Latin hymns and liturgy, e.g. the Jistebnický kancionál, the Jistebnice Hymnal.
After the election of George of Poděbrady
George of Podebrady
George of Kunštát and Poděbrady , also known as Poděbrad or Podiebrad , was King of Bohemia...
to the Czech throne following the Hussite wars, a new cultural wave swept into Bohemia. Humanism
Humanism
Humanism is an approach in study, philosophy, world view or practice that focuses on human values and concerns. In philosophy and social science, humanism is a perspective which affirms some notion of human nature, and is contrasted with anti-humanism....
saw in the classics of antiquity an ideal for literature and culture. The main feature of the literature of this period is the competition between Catholics writing in Latin, e.g. Bohuslav Hasištejnský z Lobkovic
Bohuslav Hasištejnský z Lobkovic
Bohuslav Hasištejnský z Lobkovic was a nobleman, writer and humanist of old Bohemian family of Lobkovic.He was born at Hasištejn Castle near Kadaň, Bohemia. He studied in Bologna and Ferrara and converted from Utraquism to Catholicism there...
and Jan Dubravius
Jan Dubravius
Joannes Dubravius was a Czech churchman, humanist and writer. He became the bishop of Olomouc, in Bohemia. His name is given also as Jan Dubravius or Janus Dubravius, Jan Skála z Doubravky and Jan z Doubravky, and Dubravinius.-Works:...
) and Protestants writing in Czech, e.g. Viktorin Kornel z Všehrd and Václav Hájek. New literary devices incited scholars, e.g. Veleslavín
Veleslavín
Veleslavín is a district of Prague city, part of Prague 6, situated in the west of the city approximately 5km from Ruzyně International Airport. It was probably founded in the 10th or 11th century and has been part of Prague since 1922. 6,531 people live here....
, to construct a more complex grammatical structure, based on Latin, as well as an influx of loan words. Gutenberg's printing press
Printing press
A printing press is a device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium , thereby transferring the ink...
rendered books and pamphlets more accessible, which slowly changed literature's status in society.
Baroque
The demise of the Czech Protestants after the Battle of the White Mountain decidedly affected Czech literary development. The forceful re-Catholicization and Germanization of Bohemia and the ensuing confiscations and expulsions virtually eliminated the Protestant middle classes and split the literature into two parts: the domestic Catholic and the émigré ProtestantProtestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
branches. Unlike in other European countries of the time, the nobility in Bohemia was not a part of the literary audience and thus this split of literary effort led to a certain lack of development and stagnation of Czech baroque literature in comparison to other European countries of the time, especially in genres that were written for noble courts. The largest personality of Czech evangelical baroque writing is John Commenius, who spent his youth in Bohemia but was forced into exile later in life. He was a pedagogue, theologian, reformer of education, and philosopher; his works include grammars, theoretical tracts on education, and works on theology. With his death in the late 17th century, Protestant literature in the Czech language virtually disappeared. Catholic baroque works span two types: religious poetry such as that of Adam Michna z Otradovic, Fridrich Bridel and Václav Jan Rosa, and religious prose writings (i.e. homiletic prose and hagiographies
Hagiography
Hagiography is the study of saints.From the Greek and , it refers literally to writings on the subject of such holy people, and specifically to the biographies of saints and ecclesiastical leaders. The term hagiology, the study of hagiography, is also current in English, though less common...
), and historical accounts (Bohuslav Balbín
Bohuslav Balbín
Bohuslav Balbín was a Czech writer and Jesuit, the "Bohemian Pliny," whose Vita beatae Joannis Nepomuceni martyris was published in Prague, 1670,...
), as well as the Jesuit St. Wenceslas Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
.
The Enlightenment
At the end of the 18th century, the Bohemian lands underwent a considerable change - the Habsburg emperor Josef II put an end to the feudalFeudalism
Feudalism was a set of legal and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries, which, broadly defined, was a system for ordering society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour.Although derived from the...
system and supported a new religious and ideological tolerance. Enlightened classicism
Classicism
Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for classical antiquity, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. The art of classicism typically seeks to be formal and restrained: of the Discobolus Sir Kenneth Clark observed, "if we object to his restraint...
emerged, which sought to apply the principles of rational science to all aspects of daily life. A national culture and literature in one's own national language began to be seen as a prerequisite for the unification of a nation. In literature, this constituted a renewed interest in prose novels (e.g. Matěj Václav Kramerius), in Czech history and in the historical development of Czech culture (e.g. Josef Dobrovský
Josef Dobrovský
Josef Dobrovský was a Bohemian philologist and historian, one of the most important figures of the Czech national revival.- Life & Work :...
, who re-codified the grammar of the Czech language and Antonín Jaroslav Puchmayer, who systematically set out to develop a Czech poetic style). The literary audience evolved from priests and monks to the laity and general public and literature began to be seen as a vehicle of artistic expression. Bohemia and Moravia, however, remained within the sphere of Austrian and German cultural influence. The new national literature thus firstly mimicked popular German genres and would only later evolve into an independent creative effort; this was especially true for drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
, e.g. Václav Kliment Klicpera
Václav Kliment Klicpera
Václav Kliment Klicpera was a Czech playwright, author, and poet. He was one of the first presenters of Czech drama, and was especially influential in the foundation of comedic Czech theater....
.
19th century
Pre-romanticism formed the transition between enlightened classicism and romanticism - the pre-romantics did not completely abandon the emphasis on poetic forms drawn from antiquityAncient history
Ancient history is the study of the written past from the beginning of recorded human history to the Early Middle Ages. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, with Cuneiform script, the oldest discovered form of coherent writing, from the protoliterate period around the 30th century BC...
, but relaxed the strict separation between the genres and turned away from didactic genres toward more lyric, folk-inspired works (e.g. Ján Kollár
Ján Kollár
Ján Kollár was a Slovak writer , archaeologist, scientist, politician, and main ideologist of Pan-Slavism.- Life :...
and František Čelakovský
František Celakovský
František Ladislav Čelakovský, also known by the pseudonym Marcian Hromotluk, was a Czech writer and translator.-Life:...
.) It was during this period that the idea of a truly national literature and culture developed, as a rejection of Bernard Bolzano
Bernard Bolzano
Bernhard Placidus Johann Nepomuk Bolzano , Bernard Bolzano in English, was a Bohemian mathematician, logician, philosopher, theologian, Catholic priest and antimilitarist of German mother tongue.-Family:Bolzano was the son of two pious Catholics...
's vision of a bi-lingual and bi-cultural Czech-German state. The perhaps greatest figure of this era is Josef Jungmann
Josef Jungmann
Josef Jungmann was a Bohemian poet and linguist, and a leading figure of the Czech National Revival. Together with Josef Dobrovský, he is considered to be a creator of the modern Czech language.-Life:Jungmann was the sixth child of a cobbler. In his youth, he wanted to become a priest...
, who translated many classics of world literature and spent his life establishing Czech literature as a serious, rich literature capable of great development. František Palacký
František Palacký
František Palacký was a Czech historian and politician.-Biography:...
and Pavel Jozef Šafárik
Pavel Jozef Šafárik
Pavol Jozef Šafárik Pavol Jozef Šafárik (Safáry / Schaffáry/ Schafary/ Saf(f)arik / Šafarík/ Szafarzik, Czech Pavel Josef Šafařík, German Paul Joseph Schaffarik, Serbian Павле Јосиф Шафарик, Latin Paulus Josephus Schaffarik, Hungarian Pál József Saf(f)arik) Pavol Jozef Šafárik (Safáry /...
took up the challenge of reexamining Czech history. As part of the effort to establish a pedigree for Czech literature and culture, Czech historians of the time sought evidence of heroic epics of the Middle Ages. They appeared to find such evidence in the Rukopis královédvorský and Rukopis zelenohorský (the Dvůr Králové Manuscript and the Zelená Hora Manuscript, respectively), although both were later proven forgeries.
By the 1830s, the foundations of Czech literature were laid and authors now began to focus more on the artistic merits of their work and less on developing the idea of Czech literature and culture as a whole. During this time period two main types of literature were produced: Biedermeier
Biedermeier
In Central Europe, the Biedermeier era refers to the middle-class sensibilities of the historical period between 1815, the year of the Congress of Vienna at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, and 1848, the year of the European revolutions...
literature, which strove to educate the readers and encourage them to be loyal to the Austro-Hungarian Empire (e.g. Karel Jaromír Erben
Karel Jaromír Erben
Karel Jaromír Erben was a Czech historian, poet and writer of the mid-19th century, best known for his collection Kytice , which contains poems based on traditional and folkloric themes....
and Božena Němcová
Božena Nemcová
Božena Němcová was a Czech writer of the final phase of the Czech National Revival movement.-Biography:...
), and romanticism
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
, which emphasized the freedom of the individual and focused on subjectivity and the subconscious (e.g. Karel Hynek Mácha
Karel Hynek Mácha
Karel Hynek Mácha was a Czech romantic poet.- Biography :Mácha grew up in Prague, the son of a foreman at a mill. He learned Latin and German in school...
.) These authors were generally published in either newspapers or in the literary magazine Květy (Blossoms) published by Josef Kajetán Tyl
Josef Kajetán Tyl
Josef Kajetán Tyl was a significant Czech dramatist, writer and actor. He was a notable figure of the Czech National Revival movement and is best known as the author of the current national anthem of the Czech Republic titled Kde domov můj.-Life:Josef Kajetán Tyl was the first-born son of Jiří...
.
The year 1848 brought to the fore a new generation of Czech authors who followed in the footsteps of Mácha, and published their work in the new almanac Máj (May) (e.g. Vítězslav Hálek
Vítezslav Hálek
Vítězslav Hálek was a Czech poet, writer, journalist, dramatist and theatre critic. He is considered one of the most important representatives of the May school, besides Jan Neruda and Karolína Světlá.- Life :...
, Karolina Světlá
Karolína Svetlá
Karolina Světlá was a Czech female author of the 19th century. She was a representative to the literary May School. She married Professor Petr Mužák in 1852, who had taught her music. She also had an affair with Jan Neruda. She introduced Eliška Krásnohorská to literature and feminism...
and Jan Neruda
Jan Neruda
Jan Nepomuk Neruda was a Czech journalist, writer and poet, one of the most prominent representatives of Czech Realism and a member of "the May school".-Early life:...
). These authors rejected the narrow ideal of a purely national culture and favored one that incorporated Czech literature into European culture and drew inspiration from the progress made outside of the Czech lands. Their work, however, also commented on the encroachment of industrialization and focused increasingly on the simple life as opposed to the unfettered romantic ideal.
The May generation was followed by the neo-romantics
Neo-romanticism
The term neo-romanticism is used to cover a variety of movements in music, painting and architecture. It has been used with reference to very late 19th century and early 20th century composers such as Gustav Mahler particularly by Carl Dahlhaus who uses it as synonymous with late Romanticism...
, who continued in the romantic tradition, but also incorporated more contemporary styles: realism
Literary realism
Literary realism most often refers to the trend, beginning with certain works of nineteenth-century French literature and extending to late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century authors in various countries, towards depictions of contemporary life and society "as they were." In the spirit of...
, Symbolism
Symbolism (arts)
Symbolism was a late nineteenth-century art movement of French, Russian and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts. In literature, the style had its beginnings with the publication Les Fleurs du mal by Charles Baudelaire...
, and decadence
Decadence
Decadence can refer to a personal trait, or to the state of a society . Used to describe a person's lifestyle. Concise Oxford Dictionary: "a luxurious self-indulgence"...
. Three periods are apparent: the first reacted to the disappointment due to the lack of political and social progress during the 1870s (e.g. Václav Šolc); the second was the great return to poetry, especially epic poetry (e.g. Josef Václav Sládek); and the third focused on prose (e.g. Alois Jirásek
Alois Jirásek
Alois Jirásek was a Czech writer, author of historical novels and plays. Jirásek was a secondary-school teacher until his retirement in 1909. He wrote a series of historical novels imbued with faith in his nation and in progress toward freedom and justice...
).
In conversation with the neo-romantics, the next generation of authors leaned toward realism and naturalism
Naturalism (literature)
Naturalism was a literary movement taking place from the 1880s to 1940s that used detailed realism to suggest that social conditions, heredity, and environment had inescapable force in shaping human character...
, the ordinary and banal. They favored contemporary subjects over historical ones, and sought to deemphasize the personal voice of the author in comparison to the often highly colored speech of the characters. Two main topics were of interest: the exploration of the Czech village and the extent to which it remained an oasis of good morals (Jan Herben, Karel Václav Rais
Karel Václav Rais
Karel Václav Rais was a Czech realist novelist, author of the so-called country prose, numerous books for youth and children, and several poems.- Biography :...
, Alois Mrštík); and Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
, especially the life of the lower classes (Ignát Herrman, Karel Matěj Čapek Chod).
The last literary generation of the 19th century signaled a decided break with the past and the advent of modernism
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
- after the wave of optimism in the wake of the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
at the beginning of the century, the lack of progress in implementing these ideals of freedom and brotherhood led to both a skepticism toward the possibility of ever achieving these ideals, and renewed efforts to do so. The common link between authors of this generation is their adherence to a particular style over their own voices, and their often very critical perspectives on the work of the previous generations. The modernists also inaugurated the cult of the artist, and this period saw the birth of the literary critic as an independent profession, as an ally of the artist, helping to both define and present work to the public (František Xaver Šalda). Notable poets of this period drew on the works and translations of the poet Jaroslav Vrchlický
Jaroslav Vrchlický
Jaroslav Vrchlický was one of the greatest Czech lyrical poets. He was born Emil Frida, Vrchlický being a pseudonym.He also wrote epic poetry, plays, prose and literary essays and translated widely from various languages, introducing e.g. Dante, Goethe, Shelley, Baudelaire, Poe, and Whitman to...
and include, among others, Josef Svatopluk Machar
Josef Svatopluk Machar
Josef Svatopluk Machar was a Czech poet and essayist. A a leader of the realist movement in Czech poetry and a master of colloquial Czech, Machar was active in anti-Austrian political circles in Vienna. Many of his poems were satires of political and social conditions...
, Antonín Sova
Antonín Sova
Antonín Sova was a Czech poet. He was one of the foremost representatives of the literary Impressionism and Symbolism in Czech literature.-External links:*...
, Otokar Březina
Otokar Brezina
Otakar or Otakar Březina ; pen name of Václav Jebavý.; was a Czech poet and essayist, considered the greatest of Czech Symbolists.-Biography :...
, and Karel Hlaváček
Karel Hlavácek
Karel Hlaváček was a Czech Symbolist and Decadent poet and artist.He published his poetic works and art criticisms in the journal Moderní revue . He was also active as an artist, creating works that suggest his anxieties about sex, such as Exile...
); prose authors include Vilém Mrštík, Růžena Svobodová, and Josef Karel Šlejhar.
20th century
The turn of the 20th century marked a profound shift in Czech literature — after nearly a century of work, literature finally freed itself from the confines of needing to educate and serve the nation and spread Czech culture, and became literature simply for the sake of art. The orientation toward FranceFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Northern Europe
Northern Europe
Northern Europe is the northern part or region of Europe. Northern Europe typically refers to the seven countries in the northern part of the European subcontinent which includes Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Finland and Sweden...
, and Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
intensified, and new demands were laid on the cultural knowledge of authors and their audience.
The new generation of poets distanced themselves from both the neo-romantics and the modernists: led by S. K. Neumann, their work focused on concrete reality, free of any pathos, or complicated symbolism. Many of the new poets (Karel Toman
Karel Toman
Karel Toman was a Czech poet, remembered for his epic love poems and Romantic inspirations.-External links:*...
, Fráňa Šrámek
Frána Šrámek
Fráňa Šrámek was a Czech anarchist, impressionist, and vitalist poet, novelist, and playwright....
, Viktor Dyk
Viktor Dyk
Viktor Dyk was a well-known Czech poet, prose writer, playwright, politician and political writer....
, František Gellner
František Gellner
František Gellner was a Czech poet, short story writer, artist and anarchist.-Biography:František Gellner was born to a poor Jewish family in Mladá Boleslav, Bohemia. His father was a seller and a keen socialist...
, Petr Bezruč
Petr Bezruc
Petr Bezruč was the pseudonym of Vladimír Vašek , a Czech poet and short story writer who was associated with the region of Austrian Silesia.Bezruč was born in Opava and died in Olomouc.- Works :Poetry...
) allied themselves with anarchism
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
and the women's movement, although this influence waned throughout the decade. In prose, the work of the modernist generation was only now coming into its own, but the different stylistic waves that affected their prose are also evident in the work of the new generation — naturalism
Naturalism (literature)
Naturalism was a literary movement taking place from the 1880s to 1940s that used detailed realism to suggest that social conditions, heredity, and environment had inescapable force in shaping human character...
(A. M Tilšchová); impressionism
Impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s...
(Šrámek, Gellner, Jiří Mahen
Jirí Mahen
Jiří Mahen was a Czech novelist, playwright and essayist.- Life :He was born Antonín Vančura, in Čáslav, to an old noble family of the Moravian Brethren faith. In his grammar-school years he became an anarchist. He later studied linguistics of the Czech and German languages at Prague University...
, Jan Opolský, Rudolf Těsnohlídek
Rudolf Tesnohlídek
Rudolf Těsnohlídek was a Czech writer, journalist and translator. He also used the pseudonym Arnošt Bellis.- Life :...
); the Vienna Secession
Vienna Secession
The Vienna Secession was formed in 1897 by a group of Austrian artists who had resigned from the Association of Austrian Artists, housed in the Vienna Künstlerhaus. This movement included painters, sculptors, and architects...
(Růžena Svobodová, Jan Karásek).
After their rebellious first decade, the new generation of poets (Toman, Neumann, Šrámek) turned toward nature and life in their work. This decade also marked the return of Catholic authors (Josef Florian
Josef Florian
Josef Florian was a Czech book publisher and translator.He was famous for the high quality of books he published in his small publishing company in Stará Říše...
, Jakub Deml
Jakub Deml
Jakub Deml was a Czech Catholic priest and writer.-Life:Deml was born in Tasov near Třebíč, then Austria-Hungary, now Czech Republic. In 1902 he was ordained Roman Catholic priest, but in 1907-1908 and after 1909 he was pensioned, partly due to conflicts with his superiors. He became one of the...
, Jaroslav Durych
Jaroslav Durych
Jaroslav Durych was a Czech prose writer, poet, playwright, journalist, and military surgeon.Durych was born in Hradec Králové...
, Josef Váchal
Josef Váchal
Josef Váchal was a Czech writer, painter, graphic designer and book-printer.Váchal was the illegitimate son of Josef Aleš-Lyžec and Anna Váchalová - his parents never married...
) and the first entrance of the avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
into Czech literature, seeking to document the rapid changes in society and modernization. The first avantgarde style was neoclassicism
Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism is the name given to Western movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw inspiration from the "classical" art and culture of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome...
, which soon gave way to cubism
Cubism
Cubism was a 20th century avant-garde art movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture...
, futurism
Futurism (art)
Futurism was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century. It emphasized and glorified themes associated with contemporary concepts of the future, including speed, technology, youth and violence, and objects such as the car, the airplane and the industrial city...
, and civilism (S. K. Neumann, the young brothers Čapek).
World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
brought with it a wave of repression of the newly emergent Czech culture, and this meant a return to the past, to traditional Czech values and history: the Hussites and the Awakening. The war, however, also precipitated a crisis of values, of faith in progress, religion, and belief, which found outlet in expressionism
Expressionism
Expressionism was a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas...
(Ladislav Klíma
Ladislav Klíma
Ladislav Klíma , was a Czech philosopher and novelist influenced by George Berkeley, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. His philosophy is referred to varyingly as existentialism and subjective idealism.-Life:...
, Jakub Deml
Jakub Deml
Jakub Deml was a Czech Catholic priest and writer.-Life:Deml was born in Tasov near Třebíč, then Austria-Hungary, now Czech Republic. In 1902 he was ordained Roman Catholic priest, but in 1907-1908 and after 1909 he was pensioned, partly due to conflicts with his superiors. He became one of the...
, Richard Weiner
Richard Weiner
Richard Weiner is an American author, lecturer, lexicographer, and public relations consultant.-Life and work:Weiner was born in New York City on May 10, 1927. He received B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of Wisconsin. A science writer and broadcaster, he produced the first radio...
), civilism (Čapek brothers) and visions of a universal brotherhood of mankind (Ivan Olbracht
Ivan Olbracht
Ivan Olbracht was a Czech writer, journalist and translator of German prose.The son of writer Antal Stašek, Olbracht studied law and philosophy in Prague and Berlin...
, Karel Matěj Čapek Chod, F. X. Šalda).
The interwar period
Interwar period
Interwar period can refer to any period between two wars. The Interbellum is understood to be the period between the end of the Great War or First World War and the beginning of the Second World War in Europe....
, coinciding with the First Republic, is one of the apogees of Czech literature — the new state brought with it a plurality of thinking, religion, and philosophy, leading to a great flowering of literature and culture. The first major theme of the interwar period was the war — the inhumanity, violence, and terror, but also the heroic actions of the Czech Legion (Rudolf Medek
Rudolf Medek
Rudolf Medek was a Czech poet, army-related prose writer, and a general in the Czechoslovak Legions in Russia...
, Josef Kopta
Josef Kopta
Josef Kopta was a Czech writer and journalist.Before World War I Kopta worked as a bank clerk. In 1914 he was sent to the Eastern front, in 1915 taken prisoner and later joined Czechoslovak Legions in Russia.After the war he worked as a journalist in newspapers Národního osvobození and Lidové noviny...
, František Langer
František Langer
František Langer , was a Czech playwright, military physician, script writer, essayist, literary critic and publicist. He was born and died in Prague.- Life :...
, Jaroslav Hašek
Jaroslav Hašek
Jaroslav Hašek was a Czech humorist, satirist, writer and socialist anarchist best known for his novel The Good Soldier Švejk, an unfinished collection of farcical incidents about a soldier in World War I and a satire on the ineptitude of authority figures, which has been translated into sixty...
). A new generation of poets ushered in the return of the avantgarde: poetry of the heart (early Jiří Wolker
Jirí Wolker
Jiří Wolker was a Czech poet, journalist and playwright. He was one of the founding members of CPC - Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in 1921.- Life :...
, Zdeněk Kalista
Zdenek Kalista
Zdeněk Kalista was a Czech historian, poet, literary critic, and editor....
) and naivism (Čapek brothers, Josef Hora
Josef Hora
Josef Hora was a Czech poet.-Early life:Josef Hora was born in Dobříň, Litoměřice District, Bohemia in a farmstead, which now houses the Museum of Josef Hora. His father soon sold the house in the village and the family moved to Prague...
, Jaroslav Seifert
Jaroslav Seifert
Jaroslav Seifert was a Nobel Prize winning Czech writer, poet and journalist.Born in Žižkov, a suburb of Prague in what was then part of Austria-Hungary, his first collection of poems was published in 1921...
, and S. K. Neumann). The avantgarde soon split, however, into the radical proletarian socialist and communist authors (Wolker, Seifert, Neumann, Karel Teige
Karel Teige
Karel Teige was the major figure of the Czech avant-garde movement Devětsil in the 1920s, a graphic artist, photographer, and typographer...
, Antonín Matěj Píša, Hora, Jindřich Hořejší), the Catholics (Durych, Deml), and to the centrists (brothers Čapek, Dyk, Fischer, Šrámek, Langer, Jan Herben). A specifically Czech literary style, poetism, was developed by the group Devětsil
Devetsil
The Devětsil was an association of Czech avant-garde artists, founded in 1920 in Prague. From 1923 on there was also an active group in Brno. The movement discontinued its activities in 1930 ....
(Vítězslav Nezval
Vítezslav Nezval
Vítězslav Nezval was one of the most prolific avant-garde Czech writers in the first half of the twentieth century and a co-founder of the Surrealist movement in Czechoslovakia....
, Jaroslav Seifert, Konstantin Biebl
Konstantin Biebl
Konstantin Biebl was a Czech poet.-Biography:Konstantin Biebl was born in Slavětín near Louny, Bohemia, then Austria-Hungary. His father was a dentist in Louny, apt to write poetry and paint. He committed suicide in 1916 when he served as a surgeon in Galicia.. Arnošt Ráž, a brother of...
, Karel Teige
Karel Teige
Karel Teige was the major figure of the Czech avant-garde movement Devětsil in the 1920s, a graphic artist, photographer, and typographer...
), which argued that poetry should pervade everyday life, that poetry is inseparable from daily life, that everyone is a poet. Prose of the interwar period distanced itself even more from the traditional, single perspective prose of the previous century, in favor of multiple perspectives, subjectivity, and fractured narratives. Utopian and fantastic
Fantastic
The Fantastic is a literary term that describes a quality of other literary genres, and, in some cases, is used as a genre in and of itself, although in this case it is often conflated with the Supernatural. The term was originated in the structuralist theory of critic Tzvetan Todorov in his work...
literature came into the forefront (Jan Weiss
Jan Weiss
Jan Weiss was a major Czech writer, most famous for his surreal book Dům o Tisíci Patrech .- Birth and early life :...
, Karel Čapek
Karel Capek
Karel Čapek was Czech writer of the 20th century.-Biography:Born in 1890 in the Bohemian mountain village of Malé Svatoňovice to an overbearing, emotional mother and a distant yet adored father, Čapek was the youngest of three siblings...
, Eduard Bass
Eduard Bass
Eduard Bass, born Eduard Schmidt, was a Czech prose writer, journalist, singer, and actor.From 1910 he worked as a singer, journalist and cabaret director...
, Jiří Haussmann), as well as the genres of documentary prose, which sought to paint as accurate a picture of the world as possible (Karel Čapek, Egon Erwin Kisch
Egon Erwin Kisch
Egon Erwin Kisch was a Czechoslovak writer and journalist, who wrote in German. Known as the The raging reporter from Prague, Kisch was noted for his development of literary reportage and his opposition to Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime.- Biography :Kisch was born into a wealthy, German-speaking...
, Jiří Weil
Jirí Weil
Jiří Weil was a Czech writer. He was Jewish. His noted works include the two novels Life with a Star , and Mendelssohn Is on the Roof , as well as many short stories, and other novels....
, Rudolf Těsnohlídek
Rudolf Tesnohlídek
Rudolf Těsnohlídek was a Czech writer, journalist and translator. He also used the pseudonym Arnošt Bellis.- Life :...
, Eduard Bass, Jaromír John, Karel Poláček
Karel Polácek
Karel Poláček was a Czechoslovak writer, humorist and journalist of Jewish descent.-Life:He was born in Rychnov nad Kněžnou into a family of a Jewish trader. He started to attend secondary school there, but due to his bad results he transferred to a secondary school in Prague, from which he...
); lyrical, imaginative prose that allied itself with the poetic poetry of the time (Karel Konrád, Jaroslav Jan Paulík, Vladislav Vančura
Vladislav Vancura
Vladislav Vančura was one of the most important Bohemian writers of the 20th century...
); and Catholically-oriented prose (Jaroslav Durych, Jan Čep
Jan Cep
Jan Čep was a Czech writer and translator.He was born in 1902 in the village of Myslechovice , Moravia to a family of peasants. After completing his studies at the Gymnasium in Litovel, from 1922 to 1926 he studied Czech, English and French linguistics at Prague University...
, Jakub Deml). The drama of the time also followed the same stylistic evolution as poetry and prose — expressionism, followed by a return to realistic, civilian theater (František Langer, Karel Čapek). Along with avantgarde poetry, avantgarde theater also flourished, focusing on removing the barriers between actors and audience, breaking the illusion of the unity of a theatrical work (Osvobozené divadlo
Osvobozené divadlo
Osvobozené divadlo was a Prague avant-garde theatre scene founded as the theatre section of an association of Czech avant-garde artists Devětsil in 1926. The theatre's beginnings were strongly influenced by Dadaism and Futurism, later by Poetism...
, Jiří Voskovec
Jirí Voskovec
Jiří Voskovec was a Czech-American actor, playwright, dramatist, director, translator, and poet...
and Jan Werich
Jan Werich
Jan Werich was a Czech actor, playwright and writer.-Life:Between 1916 to 1924 he attended "reálné gymnasium" in Křemencová Street in Prague...
).
After the heady optimism of the 1920s, the 1930s brought with them an economic crisis, which helped spur a political crisis: both the left (Communist) and right (anti-German and fascist) parties radicalized and threatened the stability of the democracy. This led the authors of the time to focus on public matters and spirituality; Catholicism gained in importance (Kalista, Karel Schulz
Karel Schulz
Karel Schulz was a Czech writer and novelist, his most famous work is historical novel Kámen a bolest . Within the communist era in Czechoslovakia he wasn't very popular to the regime, because of his thought closeness to catholicism.- Work :* Kámen a bolest – historical novel, biography of...
, Halas, Vančura, Durych). Changes were apparent first in poetry: the new generation of poets (Bohuslav Reynek
Bohuslav Reynek
Bohuslav Reynek was one of the most important Bohemian poets, writers, painters and translators of the 20th century.-Education and personal life:...
, Vilém Závada, František Halas
František Halas
František Halas was one of the most significant Czech lyric poets of the 20th century, an essayist, and a translator.- Life :...
, Vladimír Holan
Vladimír Holan
Vladimír Holan was a Czech poet famous for employing obscure language, dark topics and pessimist views in his poems. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in the late 1960s. He was a member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia....
, Jan Zahradníček
Jan Zahradnícek
Jan Zahradníček was a Czech poet of the early and mid-20th century. Because of his writings and Catholic orientation he was imprisoned as an enemy of Communists after their coup in 1948.From 1919 to 1926 he studied at Classical Grammar School in Třebíč...
) began as poetists, but their work is much darker, full of images of death and fear. The older avantgarde (Teige, Nezval) also turned away from poetism to surrealism
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
, and a third group (Hora, Seifert, František Hrubín
František Hrubín
František Hrubín , was a Czech poet and writer. He was a lifetime member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia ....
) turned instead to lyricism, to quiet, memory-filled poetry. Prose, after the years of realistic journalism, turned to epics, existential novels, and subjective perspectives. Folk-inspired ballads (Josef Čapek
Josef Capek
Josef Čapek was a Czech artist who was best known as a painter, but who was also noted as a writer and a poet. He invented the word robot, which was introduced into literature by his brother, Karel Čapek.- Biography :...
, K. Čapek, Vančura, Ivan Olbracht
Ivan Olbracht
Ivan Olbracht was a Czech writer, journalist and translator of German prose.The son of writer Antal Stašek, Olbracht studied law and philosophy in Prague and Berlin...
), social-themed novels (Olbracht, Vančura, Poláček, Marie Majerová, Marie Pujmanová), and psychological novels (Jarmila Glazarová, Egon Hostovský
Egon Hostovský
Egon Hostovský , was a Czech writer. He was related to the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig. Hostovský described Zweig as "a very distant relative"; some sources describe them as cousins....
, Jaroslav Havlíček
Jaroslav Havlíček
Jaroslav Havlíček was a Czech novelist. He was an exponent of naturalism and psychological novel in Czech literature.- Life :...
) appeared. During this period, Karel Čapek wrote his most politically charged (and well-known) plays in response to the rise of fascist dictators. After the Munich Agreement
Munich Agreement
The Munich Pact was an agreement permitting the Nazi German annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. The Sudetenland were areas along Czech borders, mainly inhabited by ethnic Germans. The agreement was negotiated at a conference held in Munich, Germany, among the major powers of Europe without...
in 1938, literature once more mirrored the current political present and called for national solidarity and a return to the past.
The German protectorate
Protectorate
In history, the term protectorate has two different meanings. In its earliest inception, which has been adopted by modern international law, it is an autonomous territory that is protected diplomatically or militarily against third parties by a stronger state or entity...
and World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
left its mark on Czech literature — many of the authors of the interwar generations did not survive or went into exile. During 1938–1940, society was still relatively free, but during 1941, most of the free newspapers, magazines, and publishers were shut down, and authors were silenced. WWII thus marks the origin of the 3-way split of literature that continued throughout the socialist years until 1989: domestic published, domestic illegal, and exile literature. As a result of the war, all forms of literature turned even more toward tradition and history: poetry became more subdued, and greater emphasis was laid upon language as an expression of national identity (Hora, Halas, Seifert, Nezval), and on spirituality and religious values (Hrubín, Závada, Zahradníček, Holan). The same occurred in prose: gone were the experimental works of the interwar period, but the social and psychological novel (Václav Řezáč, Vladimír Neff
Vladimír Neff
Vladimír Neff was a popular Czech writer and translator. He wrote numerous historical novels, political satires and parodies on criminal stories and adventure tales....
, Miloš Václav Kratochvíl) remained. The historical novel marked a new resurgence (Kratochvíl, Vančura, Durych, Schulz) as a way to write about the present while cloaking it in historical novels, as did prose inspired by folk tales and folk culture (Josef Štefan Kubín, Jan Drda
Jan Drda
Jan Drda was a Czech prose writer and playwright.He was a member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia since 1945...
, Vančura, Jaromír John, Zdeněk Jirotka
Zdenek Jirotka
Zdeněk Jirotka was a Czech writer of radio-broadcast plays and author of humorous novels, short stories, and feuilletons. He was born in Ostrava , sat for the leaving examination at the secondary industrial school in Hradec Králové in 1933 and then joined the Army where he served until 1940...
). The generation of authors that debuted during the war and shortly afterwards (Jiří Orten
Jirí Orten
Jiří Orten was a Czech poet. His work was influenced by surrealism and folklore. His first book of poems, Čítanka jaro , came out in 1939. He spent time in Paris, but ultimately returned to Prague...
, Group 42
Group 42
Group 42 was a Czech artistic group officially established in 1942 . The group's activity ceased in 1948, but its influence on Czech literature and Czech art was still evident in further years....
) all shared a similar harrowing experience of the war; their works all bear the hallmark of tragedy, existentialist thought, and the focus on the person as an isolated being.
Czech postwar literature is tightly intertwined with the political state of postwar Czechoslovakia; as during the war, literature broke apart into three main branches: domestic published, domestic illegal, and exile literature. Literature under the communist regime became the refuge of freedom and democracy, and literary works and authors were valued not only for their literary merits, but also for their struggle against the regime. The literature of the entire postwar period thus enjoyed great attention, despite its often precarious position. During the first three years after the end of the war (1945–1948), however, literature maintained a certain degree of freedom, although the strengthening of the extreme left gradually pushed out of the public sphere first the Catholic authors (Deml, Durych, Čep, Zahradníček), then the moderate Communists.
1948 brought the ultimate victory of the Communists, and the subsequent end of civil freedoms — any literature contrary to the official perspective was banned and the authors persecuted. The official literary style became socialist realism
Socialist realism
Socialist realism is a style of realistic art which was developed in the Soviet Union and became a dominant style in other communist countries. Socialist realism is a teleologically-oriented style having its purpose the furtherance of the goals of socialism and communism...
and all avantgarde leanings we suppressed. Many authors went into exile — to Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, the U.S., the Vatican
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
. Of those that stayed, many chose to write in secret and remain unpublished (the surrealists (Zbyněk Havlíček, Karel Hynek), Holan, Zahradníček, Jiří Kolář
Jirí Kolár
Jiří Kolář was a Czech poet, writer, painter and translator. His work was divided between literary and visual art.- Life :Kolář came from a poor family of a baker and a seamstress...
, Josef Jedlička
Josef Jedlicka
Josef Jedlička was a Czech writer.Jedlička studied aesthetics and ethnography at Prague University, but after the communist revolution in 1948 he was kicked out of university for being an anticommunist. He then worked in various professions - as laborer, teacher, TV assistant, and tutor among them...
, Jan Hanč, Jiřina Hauková
Jirina Hauková
Jiřina Hauková was a Czech poet and translator. She was a member of the Group 42 , together with her husband Jindřich Chalupecký.- Biography :...
, Josef Škvorecký
Josef Škvorecký
Josef Škvorecký, CM is a leading contemporary Czech writer and publisher who has spent much of his life in Canada. He and his wife were long-time supporters of Czech dissident writers before the fall of communism in that country...
, Egon Bondy
Egon Bondy
Egon Bondy, born Zbyněk Fišer, was a Czech philosopher, writer, and poet, one of the main personalities of the Prague underground.In the late 1940s, Bondy was active in a surrealistic group...
, Jan Zábrana
Jan Zábrana
Jan Zábrana was a Czech writer and translator.His parents were teachers and politicians persecuted by the communist regime after the communist revolution of 1948: his mother, member of the regional parliament, was arrested and sentenced to 20 years of prison; his father, mayor of Humpolec before the...
, Bohumil Hrabal
Bohumil Hrabal
Bohumil Hrabal was a Czech writer, regarded as one of the best writers of the 20th century.- Life and work :...
). Most of their works were published only during the 1960s and 1990s.
Only at the end of the 1950s did the tight censorial control begin to ease — some poets were allowed to publish again (Hrubín, Oldřich Mikulášek, Jan Skácel
Jan Skácel
Jan Skácel was a Czech poet of Moravian origin, widely acclaimed as one of the best poets who had been writing in Czech....
) and a new literary group formed around the magazine Květen, striving to break the hold of socialist realism (Miroslav Holub
Miroslav Holub
Miroslav Holub was a Czech poet and immunologist.Miroslav Holub's work was heavily influenced by his experiences as an Immunologist, writing many poems using his scientific knowledge to poetic effect. His work is almost always unrhymed, so lends itself easily to translation...
, Karel Šiktanc, Jiří Šotola). Prose lagged behind poetry for much of the period, with the exception of Edvard Valenta
Edvard Valenta
Edvard Valenta was a Czech journalist and writer.Valenta was born into a family of a medical doctor. After secondary school he started to study at a technical university but left soon for the work of journalist...
and Josef Škvorecký
Josef Škvorecký
Josef Škvorecký, CM is a leading contemporary Czech writer and publisher who has spent much of his life in Canada. He and his wife were long-time supporters of Czech dissident writers before the fall of communism in that country...
. Shorter works, such as the short story also became popular again.
The 1960s brought with them the beginnings of reform efforts in the Communist party, and the subsequent liberalization of literature and increasing prestige of authors. Beginning with 1964, literature began to broaden in scope beyond the officially approved style. In poetry, intimate lyricism became popular (Vladimír Holan
Vladimír Holan
Vladimír Holan was a Czech poet famous for employing obscure language, dark topics and pessimist views in his poems. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in the late 1960s. He was a member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia....
), as well as epic poetry (Karel Šiktanc, Hrubín), and the realism of Group 42
Group 42
Group 42 was a Czech artistic group officially established in 1942 . The group's activity ceased in 1948, but its influence on Czech literature and Czech art was still evident in further years....
. In prose, new authors abandoned polemics about socialism and instead turned toward personal and civic morality (Jan Trefulka
Jan Trefulka
Jan Trefulka is a Czech writer, translator, literary critic and publicist. He attended school with the more internationally famous writer Milan Kundera and they have been lifelong friends....
, Milan Kundera
Milan Kundera
Milan Kundera , born 1 April 1929, is a writer of Czech origin who has lived in exile in France since 1975, where he became a naturalized citizen in 1981. He is best known as the author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, and The Joke. Kundera has written in...
, Ivan Klíma
Ivan Klíma
Ivan Klíma is a Czech novelist and playwright.- Biography :Klíma's early childhood in Prague was happy and uneventful, but this all changed with the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1938, after the Munich Agreement...
, Pavel Kohout
Pavel Kohout
Pavel Kohout is a Czech and Austrian novelist, playwright, and poet. He was a member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, a Prague Spring exponent and dissident in 1970s until he was expelled to Austria...
), the theme of war and occupation (Jiří Weil
Jirí Weil
Jiří Weil was a Czech writer. He was Jewish. His noted works include the two novels Life with a Star , and Mendelssohn Is on the Roof , as well as many short stories, and other novels....
, Arnošt Lustig
Arnošt Lustig
Arnošt Lustig was a renowned Czech Jewish author of novels, short stories, plays, and screenplays whose works have often involved the Holocaust.Lustig was born in Prague...
), especially the fate of Jews. Bohumil Hrabal
Bohumil Hrabal
Bohumil Hrabal was a Czech writer, regarded as one of the best writers of the 20th century.- Life and work :...
became the most prominent of the contemporary prose authors, with his works full of colloquialisms and non-traditional narrative structures, and the absence of official moral frameworks. Toward the end of the decade, novels of disillusionment, skepticism, and a need to find one's place in the world and history begin to appear (Vaculík, M. Kundera, Hrubín), as do modern historical novels (Oldřich Daněk
Oldrich Danek
Oldřich Daněk was a Czech dramatist, writer, director and screenwriter.After graduating from High School in Ostrava, he studied at the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague . From 1945, while still studying, he acted at the Divadlo Petra Bezruce in Ostrava...
, Jiří Šotola, Vladimír Korner
Vladimír Körner
Vladimír Körner is a Czech novelist and screenwriter. His novels were also used as screenplay for about 20 films.- External links :...
, Ota Filip
Ota Filip
This article is on the Czech novelist, there is a minor actor by the name Ota Filip who is not the same personOta Filip , is a Czech novelist and journalist. He has written in both German and Czech. His novels have also been translated into French, Italian, Spanish and Polish...
). The 1960s also brought the debuts of a new generation of authors who grew up during the excesses of Stalinism
Stalinism
Stalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...
, and thus had no ideals about world utopias — their works dealt not with changing the world, but with living in it: authenticity
Authenticity (philosophy)
Authenticity is a technical term in existentialist philosophy, and is also used in the philosophy of art and psychology. In philosophy, the conscious self is seen as coming to terms with being in a material world and with encountering external forces, pressures and influences which are very...
, responsibility both moral and literary. These included the poets Jiří Gruša
Jirí Gruša
Jiří Gruša was a Czech poet, novelist, translator, diplomat and politician.-Biography:...
, Josef Hanzlík, Antonín Brousek, Jiří Kuběna, and playwrights Ivan Vyskočil
Ivan Vyskočil
Ivan Vyskočil is a Czech actor. He starred in the film Poslední propadne peklu under director Ludvík Ráža in 1982.-Selected filmography:* Poslední propadne peklu * Smrt krásných srnců -References:...
, Jiří Šlitr
Jiří Šlitr
Jiří Šlitr was a Czech songwriter, pianist, singer, actor and painter. Together with Jiří Suchý he significantly influenced Czech pop music and theatre in the 1960s.- Biography :...
, Václav Havel
Václav Havel
Václav Havel is a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia and the first President of the Czech Republic . He has written over twenty plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally...
, Milan Uhde
Milan Uhde
Milan Uhde is a Czech playwright and politician. He is a member of the Civic Democratic Party.Uhde previously worked at a literary journal, but the publication was banned in 1972...
, Josef Topol. The close of the reform years also saw a return to experiments: surrealism
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
(Milan Nápravník, Vratislav Effenberger
Vratislav Effenberger
Vratislav Effenberger was a Czech literature theoretician.-Life and career:In 1944, Effenberger left industrial school with his Abitur. He went to study chemistry and the history of art as well as aesthetics at the philosophical faculty...
), nonsense
Nonsense
Nonsense is a communication, via speech, writing, or any other symbolic system, that lacks any coherent meaning. Sometimes in ordinary usage, nonsense is synonymous with absurdity or the ridiculous...
poetry (Emanuel Frynta), experimental poetry (Josef Hiršal
Josef Hiršal
Josef Hiršal was a Czech author, poet and novelist.Hiršal was widely regarded as one of the most important Czech authors of experimental poetry; after early surrealistic writings, he made his literary debut with a collection of poems...
, Bohumila Grögerová, Emil Juliš), abstract poetry and dada
Dada
Dada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zurich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature—poetry, art manifestoes, art theory—theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a...
(Ladislav Novák), gritty realistic prose (Jan Hanč, Vladimír Páral
Vladimír Páral
Vladimír Páral is Czech prozaic, one of the most successful Czech contemporary writers.-Black pentalogy:*Veletrh splněných přání , 1964...
) and ornate, symbol filled fantasy (Věra Linhartová). The era of literary freedom and experiments, which reached its apogee during the Prague Spring
Prague Spring
The Prague Spring was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia during the era of its domination by the Soviet Union after World War II...
of 1968, came to an abrupt end the same summer, with the Soviet invasion and subsequent "normalization."
Normalization reinstated the severe censorship of the 1950s, shut down most of the literary magazines and newspapers, and silenced authors who did not conform. More than ever before, literature split into the legal, illegal, and exile branches. Many authors fled to the U.S. and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
(Josef Škvorecký
Josef Škvorecký
Josef Škvorecký, CM is a leading contemporary Czech writer and publisher who has spent much of his life in Canada. He and his wife were long-time supporters of Czech dissident writers before the fall of communism in that country...
), Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
(Peroutka), Austria (Kohout), France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
(M. Kundera), but they generally did not fare much better than their contemporaries in Czechoslovakia, largely due to the absence of a readership. Their works became better known only through translations. The work of experimental, avantgarde authors who continued to publish as "official" authors generally shrank in quality, conformed to the official dogma, although in comparison to the 1950s, the literature was less rigid, less wooden. On the border between official and unofficial literature stood authors of historical novels (Korner, Karel Michal
Karel Michal
Karel Michal was a Czech writer.After gymnasium he was not allowed by the regime to study at the university. He worked in several professions and later used this experience in his writings...
), and well as Bohumil Hrabal
Bohumil Hrabal
Bohumil Hrabal was a Czech writer, regarded as one of the best writers of the 20th century.- Life and work :...
and Ota Pavel
Ota Pavel
Ota Pavel was a Czech writer, journalist and sport reporter...
. Seifert, Mikulášek, Skácel were all also barred from publishing; their work was published as samizdat
Samizdat
Samizdat was a key form of dissident activity across the Soviet bloc in which individuals reproduced censored publications by hand and passed the documents from reader to reader...
, small underground presses that hand-published much of the work of the underground, illegal authors. Ludvík Vaculík
Ludvík Vaculík
Ludvík Vaculík is a Czech writer and journalist. A prominent samizdat writer, he is most famous as the author of the "Two Thousand Words" manifesto of June 1968.-Pre-1968:...
, Jan Vladislav, and Václav Havel
Václav Havel
Václav Havel is a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia and the first President of the Czech Republic . He has written over twenty plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally...
and Jan Lopatka organized the largest samizdat editions. It was many of these illegal authors who signed Charta 77 and were jailed for doing so. Samizdat literature again returned to Catholicism, to memoirs and diaries of daily life (Vaculík). Memory and history were also chief motifs of samizdat literature (Karel Šiktanc, Jiřina Hauková
Jirina Hauková
Jiřina Hauková was a Czech poet and translator. She was a member of the Group 42 , together with her husband Jindřich Chalupecký.- Biography :...
), as were brutally honest, factual testimonials of daily life (Ivan Martin Jirous
Ivan Martin Jirous
Ivan Martin Jirous was a Czech poet, best known for being the artistic director of the Czech psychedelic rock group The Plastic People of the Universe and later one of the organizers of the Czech underground during the communist regime...
). The new literary generation of the 1980s was marked by the need to rebel, to act outside of the bounds of society — their work draws on the war generation (Group 42), and is often brutal, aggressive, and vulgar (Jáchym Topol
Jáchym Topol
Jáchym Topol is a Czech writer.- Life :Jáchym Topol was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, to Josef Topol, Czech playwright, poet, and translator of Shakespeare, and Jiřina Topolová, daughter of the famous Czech Catholic writer Karel Schulz.Topol's writing began with lyrics for the rock band Psí...
, Petr Placák, Zuzana Brabcová); postmodernism
Postmodernism
Postmodernism is a philosophical movement evolved in reaction to modernism, the tendency in contemporary culture to accept only objective truth and to be inherently suspicious towards a global cultural narrative or meta-narrative. Postmodernist thought is an intentional departure from the...
also influenced literature as a whole (Jiří Kratochvil, Daniela Hodrová).
The fall of communism in 1989 marked another break in Czech literature — plurality and freedom returned. The works of many of the illegal and exiled authors working under the communist regime were published for the first time (for instance Jan Křesadlo
Jan Kresadlo
Jan Křesadlo was the primary pseudonym used by Václav Jaroslav Karel Pinkava , a Czech psychologist who was also a prizewinning novelist and poet....
and Ivan Blatný
Ivan Blatný
Ivan Blatný was a Czech poet, member of Skupina 42 .-Life:...
) and many of them returned to public life and publishing. Although some critics would say that contemporary Czech literature (since 1989) is relatively marginalised in comparison with Czech film-making, writers such as Petr Šabach
Petr Šabach
-Works:* Jak potopit Austrálii * Hovno hoří * Zvláštní problém Františka S. * Putování mořského koně * Babičky * Opilé banány * Čtyři muži na vodě * Ramon...
, Ivan Martin Jirous
Ivan Martin Jirous
Ivan Martin Jirous was a Czech poet, best known for being the artistic director of the Czech psychedelic rock group The Plastic People of the Universe and later one of the organizers of the Czech underground during the communist regime...
, Jáchym Topol
Jáchym Topol
Jáchym Topol is a Czech writer.- Life :Jáchym Topol was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, to Josef Topol, Czech playwright, poet, and translator of Shakespeare, and Jiřina Topolová, daughter of the famous Czech Catholic writer Karel Schulz.Topol's writing began with lyrics for the rock band Psí...
, Miloš Urban
Miloš Urban
Miloš Urban is a Czech novelist and horror writer.-His books:He is known for Sedmikostelí , a dark thriller about Kvetoslav Svach and how he is linked to murders in seven cathedrals in Prague that came out in 1999...
, Patrik Ouředník
Patrik Ouředník
Patrik Ouředník is a Czech author and translator, living in France....
, and Petra Hůlová
Petra Hulová
Petra Hůlová is a Czech writer.-Education:Hůlová holds a degree in culturology from Charles University in Prague...
are public figures and sell books in large numbers. Contemporary Czech poetry, in Petr Borkovec can boast a poet of European standing.
Contemporary Czech authors
- Michal AjvazMichal AjvazMichal Ajvaz is a Czech novelist, poet and translator, an exponent of the literary style known as magic realism.- Biography :...
- Jan BalabánJan BalabánJan Balabán was a Czech writer, journalist, and translator. He was considered an existentialist whose works often dealt with the wretched and desperate aspects of the human condition.-Partial biography:...
- Ivan Martin JirousIvan Martin JirousIvan Martin Jirous was a Czech poet, best known for being the artistic director of the Czech psychedelic rock group The Plastic People of the Universe and later one of the organizers of the Czech underground during the communist regime...
- Emil Hakl
- Petra HůlováPetra HulováPetra Hůlová is a Czech writer.-Education:Hůlová holds a degree in culturology from Charles University in Prague...
- Milan KunderaMilan KunderaMilan Kundera , born 1 April 1929, is a writer of Czech origin who has lived in exile in France since 1975, where he became a naturalized citizen in 1981. He is best known as the author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, and The Joke. Kundera has written in...
- Patrik OuředníkPatrik OuředníkPatrik Ouředník is a Czech author and translator, living in France....
- Sylvie Richterová
- Jaroslav RudišJaroslav RudišJaroslav Rudiš is a Czech writer, journalist and musician.Rudiš became known after publishing his first novel Nebe pod Berlínem in 2002, the tale of a Czech teacher who chooses to leave his job and to start a new life in Berlin, where he plays music in the underground, which - and especially the...
- Pavel ŘezníčekPavel ReznícekPavel Řezníček is a Czech writer. In addition to his writing career he also translates from French . He did not finish a secondary school and since 1965 had worked in many manual professions...
- Petr StančíkPetr StančíkPetr Stančík is a Czech author, poet, novelist, essayist, dramatist and advertising copywriter.- Life :The author’s parents are teachers. Petr Stančík graduated from secondary school in Hradec Králové in 1985. Until 1989 he performed many manual jobs. From 1989 to 1991 he studied directing at the...
- Michal ŠandaMichal ŠandaMichal Šanda is Czech writer and poet.- Life :After secondary school, he made his living in a series of jobs that included stonemasonry, bookselling, street vending, fowling and organ-grinding, as well as making fans on an ostrich farm and painting railway cars...
- Jáchym TopolJáchym TopolJáchym Topol is a Czech writer.- Life :Jáchym Topol was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, to Josef Topol, Czech playwright, poet, and translator of Shakespeare, and Jiřina Topolová, daughter of the famous Czech Catholic writer Karel Schulz.Topol's writing began with lyrics for the rock band Psí...
- Miloš UrbanMiloš UrbanMiloš Urban is a Czech novelist and horror writer.-His books:He is known for Sedmikostelí , a dark thriller about Kvetoslav Svach and how he is linked to murders in seven cathedrals in Prague that came out in 1999...
- Jaroslav VelinskýJaroslav VelinskýJaroslav Velinský was born 1932 in Prague. He was miner, metal-smith, graphic artist, science fiction and detective writer, publisher, musician . One of the founders of the Czech folk festival Porta. Honorary member of Czech-ertar society . In the folk arena and among SF friends and fans known as...
- Michal VieweghMichal VieweghMichal Viewegh is one of the most popular contemporary Czech writers and the bestselling one. He writes about romantic relationships of his contemporaries with humour, and variously successful irony and attempts at deeper meaningfulness; he is sometimes compared to Nick Hornby by his fans.His...
- Radka Denemarková
Czech Literary Awards
Czech Literary Awards- Jaroslav Seifert PrizeJaroslav Seifert PrizeThe Jaroslav Seifert Prize is a prestigious Czech literary prize. It was originally awarded to authors in exile during the Soviet era.- Laureates :*2010 – Jáchym Topol*2009 – Ludvík Kundera*2008 – Václav Havel*2007 – František Listopad...
- Jiří Orten Prize
- Magnesia Litera Prize
External links
- http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/Slavonic/Culik_Czechliterature.htm -An overview, in English, of the history of Czech literature since its inception to the present day. (January 2009)
- http://www.blisty.cz/art/45080.html Resources in English on Czech Literature, Cinema and Politics
- Czech and Slovak Literature Resources at Oxford – many of the links are to Czech pages, most descriptions in English. Contains also a historic overview
- Czech Literature since the 1980s – lecture
- Brief history with a few capsule portraits
- Overview from Encyclopedia Britannica
- Potápěč – Czech and Slovak Literature Resources – Czech Literature Resources. In Czech.
- Lecture about changes after the fall of communism
- Article about current state of Czech culture and Western mis-perceptions of it, with readers' polemic
- Columbia Encyclopedia - very brief history
- Catholic Encyclopedia - brief early history till 1800
- The history of Czech literature
- Czech Literature Now – English translations of contemporary (c. 1995) Czech writers.
- The Cafe Irreal: Czech authors – translations of contemporary, non-realist Czech literature