Czech Literature

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Eric

Former Member
Now that Václav Havel has died, I looked again at Czech literature as a whole.

I've been looking over Christmas at the anthology of stories described in #13, and I'm not getting on very well with it so far. It seems to oscillate between photorealistic descriptions of urban misery and, on the other hand, a kind of LSD trip by Ajvaz, very similar to his novel, which I didn't really appreciate.

Ajvaz throws in all sorts of things, usually involving wardrobes that lead to secret places, mysterious doors, small passages of philosophy from named philosophers, university libraries, second-hand bookshops, a bit of snow & ice, etc., and mixes it all up into a Christmas pudding of stodge, with a twinkle of fairyland every now and again.

I hope there are better things in the rest of the anthology.

*

However, I looked at some poems by Jaroslav Seifert and liked them very much. I have been reading them very carefully, not too many, and reading first the Swedish translation, then looking at the Czech originals to see how much I can pick up. I like their mood and wording, and as I'm looking at the Czech too, I know that I'm reading what the poet wrote, not some vague "interpretation" or approximation.
 
Heteronym

Heteronym

Reader
Eric said:
Heteronym, one sentence (or short paragraph) on why you love them would be appreciated. They are surely very different writers, despite the fact that they all come from the same country.
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Hm, apologies; I only read this today.

Milan Kundera: Great sense of humor, above all; a sardonic view of life; and in spite of the persecution he suffered, his work is full of optimism and love for life. I also think he has a great control of prose and he can draw enthralling sentences. Plus I like the way he blends fiction with an essayistic tone, giving his novels a unique voice.

Jaroslav Seifert: It's beautiful poetry; he writes above feelings, especially about love, and his city, Prague, very well. Perhaps he's not a great stylist, but I think there's a lot of emotional truth in his work.

Václav Havel: Again the humor; Czech writers seem to be very good at absurdist comedy. I also love his wordplay. He does twisted things with language and repetitive patterns. I love his plots too: he manages to turn normal situations into gripping and unpredictable events. And his themes are resonant: moral courage, individuality, compassion.
 
K

kpjayan

Reader
Heteronym said:
Milan Kundera: Great sense of humor, above all; a sardonic view of life; and in spite of the persecution he suffered, his work is full of optimism and love for life. I also think he has a great control of prose and he can draw enthralling sentences. Plus I like the way he blends fiction with an essayistic tone, giving his novels a unique voice.
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Right. The only issue is I find him repetitive, especialy the last 3 novels.
 
E

Eric

Former Member
I notice that Heteronym is examining the same three names as he did in #21. Fine, Kundera and Havel have humour, and Seifert.

I agree entirely about Seifert. As I have already explained, I have read translations in close conjunction with the originals of a number of his poems. But you can't do that sort of thing with prose, because there are too many words. Nevertheless, as I have explained at length on this website, I can't stand those sorts of translations that simply get away with blue murder because no one can check up on the quality of the translations. For most English-speakers, Czech is an "obscure" language, meaning that the one fan of Czech literature that decides to translate is never compared with other translations, or with the originals.

Having seen a Havel play back in about 1973 I do, of course, appreciate his work, though I've not read or seen any for the past 30-odd years. I'm still sceptical about Kundera. That nasty informer business still niggles with me, and as he lived abroad, while Havel and Seifert were living and surviving in Czechoslovakia, as it then was, I feel that it is hardly surprising that he kept repeating himself, as he was cut off the mainstream of his culture. He perhaps became just another proficient exile writer with one repeatable idea.
 
E

Eric

Former Member
I was just looking at the Wikipedia articles about a few Czech writers. There are various interesting things about the backgrounds and careers of 20th century Czech writers, ones mainly getting famous during the latter half of that century. One curiosity is that some authors had indeed been members of the Communist Party for some part of their lives: Ludvík Vaculík (1945-1968), Milan Kundera (1948-50; thrown out of the Party; rejoined and stayed till 1970) and Pavel Kohout, and Ivan Klíma (1963-67, 1968-1970), plus maybe other authors famous in the West. They were either thrown out or left as a result of the 1968 Prague Spring and its defeat and crushing.

What would be fascinating to know is what their reasons and motivations were for joining the Communist Party (i.e. the establishment at the time): idealism, opportunism, survival tactic in a tough society, or a mixture of all three? And all of them ended up in exile, France, the USA, Canada, wherever. Klíma, being of Jewish origin, had spent some of his childhood in a Nazi concentration camp. They were of working class origin.

This contrasts with odd-man-out Václav Havel who was the son of a factory and department-store owner, or similar, and was therefore a "class enemy" according to Communist doctrine. And he didn't go into exile, though he helped others to leave.

But all of them in their own way protested against the way their country was being run.
 
E

Eric

Former Member
I read a story last night by Petr Šabach as mentioned in the anthology reviewed briefly in#13, and I liked it. A simple story about two men, one betting, or wagering, the other about how long he could hold his breath. But the story was well-constructed, so this simple tale was entertaining. This author appears to have wrotten quite a lot, but how much is available in English I do not know, as I read the story in Swedish translation.
 
E

Eric

Former Member
I saw just now in the Czech press that Josef Škvorecký has died:

http://www.lidovky.cz/zemrel-josef-...datel-pnr-/lide.asp?c=A120103_155614_lide_mev

Two big writers within a few weeks.

Actually, a comment in the newspaper shows that more Czech authors have dies within the past twelve months:

Premiér Petr Nečas řekl, že se Škvoreckým odchází po Arnoštu Lustigovi, Jiřím Grušovi, Ivanu Jirousovi a Václavu Havlovi během jednoho roku další výrazná osobnost české literatury.
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You don't need to read the Czech sentence, but the names are obvious enough.
 
O

oboi1983

New member
Re: Czech Slovak literature

Hi all
Does anyone have any recommendations on fictions or non-fictions for me to learn more a about modern Czech and Slovakia through literary works over the modern era especially after the world wars?
Thanks
 
Liam

Liam

Administrator
Stopped by my local library today and flipped through an interesting (illustrated!) novel: Vladislav Vančura's Ploughshares into Swords (1925). It has a rather fragmentary structure, which I always find appealing. The book (link to the copy I flipped through here) was published in the Czech Republic and the quality differs from the usual hardcovers published in the US: it looks and feels like an aesthetic object, almost. The illustrations were rather interesting as well, in yellow, orange, peach and reddish tones. Anyway, if you are at all interested in Czech literature you might want to check it out. Author's bio (on Wiki) here.
 
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