Section Archive Czech Books
Gerry Turner: a translator who has brought some of the best 20th century Czech writing to English-speaking readers
In Czech Books today we talk to a man who has translated many Czech writers
into English. If you are interested in Czech literature you may well have
come across his name in connection with works by Ivan Klima, Vaclav Havel
or Ludvik Vaculik and many others. He is Gerry Turner. More
Remembering Eva Svankmajerova through a weird and wonderful Surrealist novella
This October the Czech Republic lost one of its greatest artists, with the
death of Eva Svankmajerova. She was probably best known for her painting
and her collaborative film work with her husband Jan Svankmajer, but she
was also a very accomplished writer. We talk to Gwendolyn Albert, who
translated her Surrealist novella, "Baradla Cave". More
Eva Jiricna: taming steel, glass and stone to create lightness and space
If you want to give someone a really stylish Christmas present that gives
you a taste of the very best of Czech design, then I think I have just the
thing for you. A richly illustrated new book has just come out, presenting
the work of one of the best contemporary Czech architects.
More
"Den poezie" - a rich annual celebration of poetry in the Czech Republic
This month sees two literary anniversaries connected with the great Czech
romantic poet, Karel Hynek Macha, who was born 195 years ago this month
and died in November 1836, just 26 years later. So we'll start with the
opening lines of his very well known lyrical epic of love and death Maj
[May]:
More
Can nationalism in Central Europe be a force for good?
This week Czech Books comes from the Irish capital, Dublin. We talk to Dr
Stefan Auer, a lecturer in European politics and society at the Dublin
European Institute at University College. Stefan is originally from
Slovakia, and he has taken a great interest in "liberal
nationalism" in Central Europe. He wrote a book which has as its
basic hypothesis the idea that nationalism, despite its very negative
connotations for many in Central Europe, can also be a force towards
greater democracy.
More
A good translation is a clean windshield: the linguistic acrobatics of Viktor Janis
What makes a good translation? Are there books that are untranslatable?
These are just two of the questions that we discuss in Czech Books this
week with Viktor Janis, a leading young literary translator.
More
Andrej Gina: recalling the poetry and poverty of the old Romany settlements
In today's Czech Books we meet a writer who is a master of the short story.
Andrej Gina, who won the Open Society Institute's Roma Literary Award in
2003, lives in the western Czech town of Rokycany. He writes in the Romany
language spoken by generations of his ancestors from the rural Romany
settlements of Eastern Slovakia. Andrej was still a small child when the
family came to the Prague after the Second World War, leaving behind an
ancient and rural world, where Roma life had changed little for centuries.
More
Jirina Smejkalova and an extraordinary publishing revolution
Few fields can have gone through such radical changes over the 16 years
since the fall of communism as publishing. In her research, the academic,
sociologist, cultural theorist and feminist Jirina Smejkalova has shed
some fascinating light on the subject, publishing a study that has become
a classic of its kind. She is also well known for her writing on feminism,
and was one of the first people to introduce contemporary western feminist
thinking to the post-Velvet Revolution Czech Republic. In this week's
Czech Books she talks to Pavla Jonssonova. She starts their conversation
by remembering back to the beginnings of her academic career, as an
undergraduate in Prague during the deepest days of communism in the late
1970s. Surprisingly, given that those were the days of censorship and
social engineering, she feels more than a little nostalgic.
More
Poetry Vandals run riot in Prague
A few weeks ago we reported on the Prague Fringe Festival, bringing
together 150 perfromers from all over the world in the Czech capital. One
group with a special relationship to Prague was the performance poetry
group "Poetry Vandals" based in Newcastle. Anarchic and
entertaining, the group was invited back after their roaring success at
last year's festival. During their stay the group's six members - Annie
Moir, Karl Thompson, Scott Tyrrell, Aidan Halpin, Kate Fox and Jeff Price
- came into the Radio Prague studio, to talk to Martin Mikule and perform
some of their poetry. So for the rest of today's Czech Books, over to the
Poetry Vandals.
More
"Time for a Poem": bringing poetry to people
We start with a short poem, written by the Slovak poet Marian
Hatala. Its impulse was a bomb attack at a place where elderly people
traditionally play chess. Some twelve hours after the explosion, people
were repairing the broken chairs, tables and benches, and impatiently
waiting to get back to the chessboard. More
+1
