Mistr subverze / Dějiny jako fraška - Napříč dílem Patrika Ouředníka – Ouředník Patrik (2021)

Patrik Ouředník needs no introduction. In the 1970s, he was involved in the activities of the Jazz Section, held various jobs including working as a bookseller's assistant, archivist, warehouseman, paramedic, postman, and manual worker. In 1984, he emigrated to France, where he initially worked as a chess consultant and later as a librarian. He studied French literature in the evenings and attended lectures on the history of ideas and the history of religious thought. From 1986 to 1998, he was an editor and head of the literary section of the quarterly L’Autre Europe. His cultural grounding is dual. He is strongly influenced by French thought, French prose, and French essay writing, yet remains attached to the Czech (or Central European) space and rightly feels part of the Czech cultural milieu and Czech literature. He is the author of a long series of texts – from novels to dictionaries – among which we recall at least Europeana. A Brief History of the Twentieth Century. (Paseka 2001; 2002; 2006; Volvox Globator 2012), a pan-European successful book translated into many languages. It is therefore evident that Ouředník's cultural position is unique. He brought to the Czech Republic the French esprit, a sense of subtle irony, and a certain type of wild and...