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Czech BooksViktor Janiš and the art of jumping through linguistic hoops
Why did the communists ban comics? Why is it so hard to translate the 19th
century English novel into Czech? And what does this have to do with a 17th
century battle in Prague? We find some of the answers in this week’s
Czech Books, with David Vaughan. More
MailboxMailbox
This week in Mailbox we disclose the identity of December’s mystery man
and announce the name of the lucky winner. Listeners quoted: Al Vybiral,
Stephen Wara, S. J. Agboola, Jayanta Chakrabarty, Henrik Klemetz, Colin
Law, Charles Konecny, Armin Gerstberger, Hans Verner Lollike. More
PanoramaHarry Pollak, the man who saved Aston Martin
When Harry Pollak left Czechoslovakia for France in the autumn of 1938, he
had no idea what the future would hold for him. As a teenager, he joined
the exile Czechoslovak army fought the Nazis who murdered his family,
before fleeing his country again after the communist coup of 1948, and
build a career in England from scratch. Mr Pollak gives an account of his
extraordinary life in his recently published memoirs. In this edition of
Panorama, we talk to Harry Pollak about how a boy from a south Bohemian
village ended up saving the famous British car-maker Aston Martin. More
Czech BooksThe longest day: an ecstasy of Czech poetry
Last month the Czech Republic enjoyed its annual celebration of poetry, the
“Den poezie”. Literally this translates as “poetry day”, although
in reality the event lasts a good deal longer than a mere 24 hours. This
year there was a particular reason to celebrate, as David Vaughan reports
in Czech Books. More
Current AffairsNew tome maps history of comics in Czechoslovakia
Fans of Czech comic books or series have a fascinating new tome to pore
over, the just released Encyklopedie komiksu (The Comics Encyclopaedia).
The book covers series and strips published in Czechoslovakia between the
years 1945 to 1989. Under the Communists, the art form was largely frowned
upon as a Western one, but continuing series were regularly published on
the back page of ABC, a long-running science magazine aimed at young
readers, still published today. More
Czech BooksBeetles, gravediggers and a familiar face from Radio Prague
Radio Prague’s literary connections go back over seventy years, starting
even before the Second World War. Well known writers like Arnošt Lustig,
Lenka Reinerová or Benjamin Kuras have all at one time worked here. And
the tradition continues. Pavla Horáková, known to many Radio Prague
listeners as the voice of our letters programme Mailbox, has just had a
novel for children published with glowing reviews. She is David Vaughan’s
guest in this week’s Czech Books. More
Talking PointJiří Pehe pens first political biography of post-89 heavyweight Václav Klaus
President Václav Klaus has been a dominant figure on the Czech political
scene ever since the early 1990s. The founder of the Civic Democrats was
finance minister and later prime minister, before becoming head of state
seven years ago. It is perhaps surprising then that the first political
biography of Mr Klaus has only now been published. “Klaus: A Portrait of
a Politician in Twenty Images” by the political analyst Jiří Pehe has
provoked heated debate between the president’s supporters and opponents. More
Czech BooksKarel Hynek Mácha: the poet of lovers
This month we are celebrating a major Czech literary anniversary. Two
hundred years ago the great Czech romantic poet, Karel Hynek Mácha, was
born in Prague. To mark the anniversary a new English edition of his most
famous poem “Máj” (May) has been published and in this week’s Czech
Books, David Vaughan talks to the translator, Marcela Sulak. More
Czech BooksExecuting justice in the retributions after WWII
Czechoslovakia was one of the first victims of the Nazis, with the march
into the Sudetenland in I938 followed by the occupation of the rest of the
country in March 1939 and an increasingly oppressive regime for most of the
population. The backlash at the end of WWII was harsh and violent. And that
backlash against the Nazi occupiers, Sudeten Germans and Czechs believed to
have collaborated in some way is the subject of US historian Benjamin
Frommer’s book “National Cleansing: Retribution against Nazi
Collaborators in Postwar Czechoslovakia.” More
SpecialChildren of the Revolution: politics and writing in today’s Czech Republic
A few days ago Radio Prague and the Czech Literature Portal, this country’s foremost website promoting Czech
literature abroad, got together to hold the first of a series of public
literary discussions. David Vaughan’s guests were two of the Czech
Republic’s best known literary figures, the novelist Petra Hůlová and
the critic and translator Martin Machovec. They were joined by an
international audience at one of Prague’s most atmospheric literary dens,
the Shakespeare and Sons bookshop, tucked away in one of
the ancient houses in Prague’s Lesser Quarter. The subject was politics
and literature; twenty years after the fall of communism, are the two in
any way compatible here in the Czech context?
More
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