Disonance a fata morgána - Česká literatura 1964-1971 (2026)

This Czech-language study is the concluding part of a long-term project mapping Czech literature of the 20th century and the methodological possibilities currently available to literary history. The project began in 2010 with A History of New Modernity: Czech Literature 1905–1923 and continued with Lapses of the Verticals: Czech Literature 1924–1934 (2014), The Age of the Horizontals: Czech Literature 1935–1947 (2017), and Choir and Dissonance: Czech Literature 1947–1963 (2022). The present volume examines the period from 1964 to 1971. Its title refers to the defining character of this period, marked by contradictions and paradoxes. A brief era in which individualistic voices prevailed over the regime’s choral conformity and opened a view onto the wider world of freedom was interrupted by the drastic events of the August 1968 occupation and the subsequent period of “normalisation”. Faith in newly acquired freedom proved to be an illusion for a long time, a mirage that appears on the horizon only to suddenly disappear. In chapters devoted to Czech and European thought, poetry, prose, drama, the importance of translated literature, thinking about literature, and also the role of contemporary film and popular culture, the authors, drawn mainly from the Centre for Modern Czech Literature at the Faculty of Arts of the University of South Bohemia and the Institute of Czech Literature and Comparative Studies at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague, approach historically diverse situations through deliberately differing methodologies. They consider these situations both in the context of contemporary philosophical and aesthetic ideas and specific artistic approaches, and through reflection on an era filled with expectation, creative and intellectual enthusiasm, frustration, and empty illusions. The book is published in cooperation with the Faculty of Arts of the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice.