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Czech BooksProfessor Peter Steiner - finding water in the Deserts of Bohemia
In this week's programme we talk to Professor Peter Steiner, who wrote a
fascinating book about Czech literature. He was born in Prague and left in
1968 to go to America. He taught at Michigan and Harvard before settling
at the University of Pennsylvania. He teaches in the department of Slavic
languages and literature.
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Current AffairsEnjoying a Czech beer at the Svejk pub in Stockholm
The Czech pub Krogen Soldaten Svejk - which of course translates as the
Good Soldier Svejk in English - is located in the lively district of
Soldermalm, south of Stockholm's city centre. The manager of the
"hospoda" is Jari Ounasvuori, a Finnish man married to the
daughter of the Czech couple who set the pub up in the mid 1970s. When I
stopped by one evening, I asked him what Czech beers they had at the
Krogen Soldaten Svejk.
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MagazineMagazine
A Saudi Arabian princess gets her jewels stolen in Karlovy Vary -right
across the street from the town's police headquarters, a noted Czech
composer shares the secret of his success: he can hear mushrooms sing. And
the Prague 2 magistrate organizes a public execution: a pickpocket gets
his hand chopped off as a warning to others. Find out more in this week's
magazine with Daniela Lazarova.
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Czechs in HistoryThe Good Soldier Svejk - a literary character, a legend
He was a man who never lived, yet who went further in defining the Czechs
in the 20th century than perhaps anyone else: the most famous of Czech
literary characters, the Good Soldier Svejk. Created by the true bohemian
- as well as anarchist - writer Jaroslav Hasek, Svejk is often
impenetrable but ultimately irreverent beneath a simple child-like smile
most often mistaken for foolishness. He makes a mockery of his
"betters" within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, ultimately seeing
through the hypocrisies of his day. Almost unintentionally he sabotages a
regime already coming apart at the seams under the fiasco of the Great
War. His greatest accomplishment: to survive in the face of adversity and
absurd situations, which continues to be his legacy for many Czechs...
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Current AffairsFans of 'The Good Soldier Svejk' salute genius of author Jaroslav Hasek
The famous Czech author of 'The Good Soldier Svejk and his Fortunes in the
World War', Jaroslav Hasek, died 80 years ago at the early age
of 39 - and it was to his genius that a special commemorative gathering
was held last week in Lipnice nad Sazavou in south-east Bohemia, where
Hasek spent the last few years of his life, and wrote much of his famous
opus.
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Czechs in HistoryJosef Lada
If you have friends in the Czech Republic and they send you Christmas
greetings regularly, you might have received an idyllic post card
depicting village children sledge-riding, skating or building a snowman.
They are all dressed up in the style of the 1930s, the most fruitful
period of our Czech in History today - painter and writer Josef Lada.
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