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Literature in the Czech Republic was disproportionately popular and important since early 19th century, as culture became something of a substitute for politics in stifled conditions of Austria-Hungary and then again in Nazi and Communist dictatures. Perhaps it is indeed significant that the dissident movement was comprised largely of intellectuals (compared to Poland's working-class, trade-union origins), however those who ascribe excessive importance to the fact that the well-known playwright Václav Havel was elected president are usually naive and mis-informed, viewing him as a philosopher-king of earthly Utopia.Czech literature is nowadays, even in historic view, meant as literature written by Czechs, in Czech language. Authors from the Czech territory who wrote in other languages (i. e. German) in the past are considered separately, and it is true that their writing always existed in parallel, with very little mutual influence to and from the body of Czech-language literature. Thus Franz Kafka, who is the most popular (often the only known) "Czech author" in popular foreign opinion, wrote in German (though he also knew Czech rather well) and most of his work became available in translation only in the 1960s. There are a few exceptional cases of native Czechs who write in other languages, by far the best-known being Milan Kundera who has lived in France since 1975, and since 1989 he writes in FrenchFrench le francais la langue francaise is one of the most important Romance languages, outnumbered only by Spanish and Portuguese. French is the 11th most spoken language in the world, spoken by about 77 million people (called Francophones) as a mother to.
1 Famous Czech authors
Ordered roughly chronologically, by era the centre of given author's work falls into:
from the national revival in early 19th century to WWI
- Josef Jungmann
- František Ladislav Celakovský
- Josef Kajetán Tyl
- Karel Hynek MáchaKarel Hynek Macha ( 16 November, 1810 November 5, 1836) was a Czech romantic poet. His lyrical epic poem Maj (May), which was published in 1836 shortly before his death, was judged by his contemporaries as immoral and a threat to society. His reputation i
- František PalackýFrantiSek Francis Palack ( June 14, 1798 May 26, 1876), Czech historian and politician, was born Hodslavice ( Hotzendorf) in Moravia. His ancestors had been members of the community of the Bohemian Brethren, and had secretly maintained their Protestant be
- Božena NemcováBozena Nemcova born on 4 February 1820 in Vienna, died on 21 January 1862 in Prague was one of the most influential Czech writers of the National Revival movement. Ne\ Ne\ Nemcova, Bozena.
- Svatopluk Cech
- Jan NerudaJan Nepomuk Neruda ( July 9, 1834 August 22, 1891) was a Czech writer and poet, one of the most prominent representatives of Czech Realism and a member of " the May school". Jan Neruda was born in Prague, Bohemia, son of a small grocer who lived in the Ma
- Karolina Svetlá
- Jakub Arbes
- Jaroslav Vrchlický
- Alois Jirásek
between the wars
- ( Franz Kafka)
- Jaroslav HašekJaroslav HaSek ( April 30, 1883 January 3, 1923) was a Czech humorist and satirist who became well-known mainly for his hilarious, world-famous novel The Good Soldier Svejk which has been translated into sixty languages. He also wrote some 1,500 other sto
- Karel CapekKarel Capek (pron. KARel CHAP-ek SAMPA: ['tSapek]) ( January 9, 1890 December 25, 1938), was one of the most important Czech writers of the 20th century. He introduced and made popular the frequently used international word robot which first appeared in h
- Ferdinand Peroutka
- Jaroslav Seifert
- Jaroslav Foglar
communist era
contemporary
