Views from the Inside: Czech Underground Literature and Culture (1948–1989) (Modern Czech Classics) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 8024635925 ISBN 13: 9788024635927

Publisher: Karolinum Press, Charles University, 2018

Synopsis

From political novels to surrealist poetry and censored rock and roll, Czech underground culture of the later twentieth century displayed an astonishing, and unheralded, variety. This fascinating exploration of that underground movement—the historical, sociological, and psychological background that gave rise to it; the literature, music, and arts that comprised it; and its more recent incorporation into the mainstream—draws on the voices of scholars and critics who themselves played an integral role in generating it. Featuring the writings of Czech poet Ivan Martin Jirous, philosopher-poet Egon Bondy, and writer Jáchym Topol, as well as Canadian expat and translator Paul Wilson—many of which have never before been available in English—in addition to an expanded bibliography reflecting advances in scholarship, this second edition of Views from the Inside is both a work of literature and an eye-opening volume of criticism.

About this title

About the Author:

Martin Machovec is an editor, teacher of English, literary historian and critic, and translator. He is a lecturer in the Department of Czech literature, Faculty of Philosophy, at Charles University, Prague.

Review:

“An essential selection of texts from and about the Czech underground of the 1970s and 1980s. Key participants provide reflections on an unofficial culture driven by underground rock, samizdat, and civic resistance. The collection is a perfect tool for class work focusing on relations between culture and politics.” (Jindrich Toman, University of Michigan)

About this edition

• Publisher: Karolinum Press, Charles University
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 8024635925
• ISBN 13: 9788024635927
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 130
• Editor: Machovec Martin