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Czech BooksAlchemy and wife swapping in Renaissance Bohemia
The philosopher, scientist and mystic, John Dee, was one of the great
figures of Elizabethan England. He was a close confidante of the Queen and
one of the founders of modern science, at a time of transition from the
medieval to the modern age – a time when science and alchemy, magic and
mathematics intertwined. In the 1580s John Dee came to Bohemia, along with
family and his mysterious friend and assistant, the alchemist Edward Kelley
– who supposedly possessed the gift of communicating with spirits.
Between them, they left an indelible mark on Czech history.
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Current AffairsArnošt Lustig behind the counter at the Franz Kafka book shop in Prague
Arnošt Lustig, one of the Czech Republic’s literary greats, has been
giving salespeople a helping hand this week. Although still weak from an
ongoing battle with cancer, Mr. Lustig put a smile on his face and spent a
week behind the sales desk at the Franz Kafka book shop in Prague,
attracting crowds of people who came to buy an autographed book and wish
him well.
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One on OneAnna Kareninová – leading Czech literary and film translator
Anna Kareninová is a leading Czech literary translator and editor who also
does the subtitles for a lot of the films that appear on the country’s
cinema and TV screens. Many viewers would no doubt imagine that Anna
Kareninová is a nom de plume, as it is the Czech version of Anna Karenina,
the heroine of the Tolstoy novel of the same name. In fact, she told me at
Prague’s Café Slavia, the name was assumed, not by her but by her
father, after he fled from Russia in 1917.
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Czech BooksEdwin Muir: a Scottish poet in Prague
Literature sometimes makes for some unusual connections. What, for example,
could Franz Kafka possibly have in common with the Orkney Islands off the
north coast of Scotland? To find the answer we start at the busy British
Council office, just a couple of streets down from Czech Radio’s
headquarters. Just after World War II, the British Council here was headed
by Edwin Muir, who was born in 1887 in Orkney and grew up on the tiny
island of Wyre. He is one of Scotland’s best known 20th century poets,
but it is also quite possible that you will have come across his name and
that of his wife Willa on the inside cover of one of Franz Kafka’s novels
or stories. They translated many of his works and did much to establish his
reputation in the English-speaking world. What is less well-known about
Edwin Muir is the time he spent in Prague, first in the 1920s and then
again between 1946 and 1949. Clarice Cloutier, who teaches literature at
two Prague universities, has written about Edwin Muir’s link to this city
– a link which, she tells me, is a good deal more than skin deep:
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Czech BooksAn Irish classic at home in Prague
When John Millington Synge’s masterpiece The Playboy of the Western World
was first performed in Dublin in 1907, there were riots in protest. The
black comedy with its tale of attempted patricide was seen as going beyond
the limits of decency, and was even accused of putting the Irish nation
into disrepute. Set in an isolated and poor rural community, Synge’s play
relishes the wealth of western Irish dialect, and today is universally
acknowledged as one of the classics of Irish drama. But what does that have
to do with the Czech Republic? In this programme, we tell the fascinating
story of how The Playboy of the Western World also came to be a Czech
classic.
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Current AffairsStories for children by Plastic People’s Vratislav Brabenec appear in English
Vratislav Brabenec is a member of the band The Plastic People of the
Universe, a thorn in the side of Czechoslovakia’s communist regime. But
Mr Brabenec is also the author of a book of stories for children, called
The Centre of the World is Everywhere, which is now also available in an
English translation.
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Czech BooksRadka Denemarková and the importance of digging up skulls
The novel “Peníze od Hitlera” (Money from Hitler), is one of the best
Czech books I’ve read for a long time, and luckily for English-speaking
readers, it has just been published in an excellent English translation by
Women’s Press in Toronto. When it first appeared in Czech over three
years ago, Money from Hitler caused quite a stir; it won the prestigious
Magnesia Litera award, but Czech critics remained divided. Perhaps this is
no surprise. The author, 41-year-old Radka Denemarková, chose one of the
most sensitive and painful episodes of modern Czech history as her starting
point, a subject that for many remains taboo to this day. Her book goes
back to the days just after the end of World War Two, when tens of
thousands of Czechoslovakia’s German-speakers were being rounded up and
expelled from the country. It is no secret that the expulsions, especially
in these early stages, were often accompanied by acts of violence,
sometimes quite indiscriminate. In her novel Radka Denemarková literally
pulls these events out from the topsoil of the recent past, as we see in
the vivid opening chapter, when a small boy digs up a rather unusual object
in his parents’ orchard with his little green spade. Here is an extract:
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PanoramaA book of oral history reflects the views of ordinary Czechs on life under communism
A new book of oral history, published by Academia, takes a look at the
bygone communist era in the Czech Republic from the perspective of ordinary
people, that is, those who didn’t have any political ambitions. Compiled
by oral historian Miroslav Vaněk and his team, “Obyčejní
Lidé…?!,” or “Ordinary People,” provides a fresh take on life
under communism.
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Current AffairsPopular children’s book - The History of the Brave Czech Nation – made into new animated series
Lucie Seifertová is one of the Czech Republic’s best-known children’s
book authors and illustrators, whose work has been translated into numerous
languages including English, Russian, German and Japanese. Now her
award-winning History of the Brave Czech Nation - voted Children’s Book
of the Year in 2003 - is being made into a 100-part animated series.
Produced by Czech TV, the series, like the book, covers broad stretches of
Czech history using humour and adventurous characters and if the premiere
last Saturday is any indication, is likely to be a big success.
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One on OneStephan Delbos- a Prague-based poet, teacher and reporter
Stephan Delbos is a Prague-based poet. Five years ago, he moved to the
Czech capital,
where he edits the Prague Review, teaches literary writing at Charles
University, works as a business reporter at the English language newspaper
The Prague Post and occasionally hosts the Alchemy poetry reading series
at
the Globe café. I talked to Mr. Delbos about the English language poetry
scene here in Prague and what initially drew him to the city. More
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