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Current AffairsPopular Czech children’s book under fiver over racist undertones
A racist passage from a popular Czech children’s book recently sparked a
heated debate in the Czech media after a Romany activist asked for it to be
withdrawn from the school curriculum. Thousands of Czechs publicly opposed
the request, which was also dismissed as unjustified by some Romany
organizations. But others believe the issue of racist undertones in some
Czech literary works should be taken seriously.
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Czech BooksA new anthology celebrates Prague’s international literary culture
Since the fall of communism, Prague has been a very international city, and
this has had a deep impact on the city’s literary culture. Many Prague
writers today have their roots outside the Czech Republic and are not
necessarily writing in the Czech language. At the same time, Czech writers
themselves have been strongly influenced by the growing cosmopolitanism of
the city, which contrasts starkly with the stifling political atmosphere
of
the 70s and 80s. In a few weeks’ time Prague’s international literary
scene will be celebrated with the publication of a major new anthology, a
hefty volume featuring two decades of writing from the Czech Republic in
English or in English translation. Its editor is the writer and artist
Louis Armand, who teaches at Prague’s Charles University, and he told me
how the anthology came about. More
One on OneJustin Quinn - A Prague-based poet, professor and translator
The Irish poet Justin Quinn has been living in the Czech Republic for close
to two decades. His latest collection of poetry, “Waves and Trees” has
been translated into Czech, and he himself has also translated the work of
Czech poets, such as Petr Borkovec, into English. I talked to Justin Quinn
about translating poetry and how living away from his native country has
affected the poetry he writes.
More
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.
More
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.
More
Current AffairsPrague hosts machine translation marathon
Prague’s Charles University recently hosted an unusual marathon which
tested the capacity of various machine translating systems. The annual
event is part of the Euromatrix project, which aims to establish machine
translation systems for all European languages. The participants had a week
to translate some 12,000 sentences from various newspapers and news sites.
In the coming weeks their output will be confronted with translations done
by professional „human” translators. Ruth Fraňková spoke to Ondřej
Bojar from the Institute of Formal and Applied Linguistics, which is taking
part in the Euromatrix project:
More
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:
More
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.
More
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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