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This article focuses on the analysis of situational and linguistic satire in Josef Škvorecký’s work The Life of Czech Society. Škvorecký, known for his sharp wit and critical perspective on Czech society, utilises satire as a tool to depict the absurdities and shortcomings of everyday life. The article examines how Škvorecký effectively combines situational humour and linguistic play to create incisive social commentary. Emphasis is placed on how characters and dialogues reflect and parody the Czech cultur...

Josef Skvorecky, the eminent Czech writer and literary theorist, occupies a key place in the context of Czech literature, not only thanks to his extensive work, but also through his work as a publisher and promoter of Czech literature in exile. This paper focuses on the personality of Josef Skvorecky, who, as an author, forms the first link in the communication process in which the message is transmitted from the author to the perceiver. The analysis works with two different perspectives. The first one is the psyc...

The paper deals with the exile view of Czech literary criticism in the past decades, reflected in two essays: one by Igor Hajek, and the other one by Kvetoslav Chvatik. Igor Hajek (1931–1995), a Czech literary critic, who went to exile in 1969, played a significant role in presenting Czech literature abroad. Kvetoslav Chvatik (1930–2012) was a Czech philosopher, aesthetician, art historian, and literary theorist. Hajek taught at universities in the English-speaking world, while Chvatik worked in a German-speak...

In 2020, the Czech Republic commemorated an anniversary of a significant humanistic thinker, writer, and theologist, whose importance has exceeded the borders of the Czech lands. Jan Amos Comenius (28 March 1592 – 15 November 1670) is a leading representative of the Czech culture of the 17th century, and he became famous, especially as an author of didactic works, which represented a breakthrough in the field of education and inspired the way to modern educational methods. These works were based on Comenius’ t...

This paper focuses on the field of literary history in order to show what approach to the historiography of Czech literature was taken by the representative of Czech exile literary criticism, Igor Hajek. The context which Hajek entered during his study stays in the USA and Great Britain, and later in exile, was the reception horizon of the late 1960s, when the events of the “Prague Spring” attracted the attention of the West and turned attention to the Czech liberalisation movement, in which literature played ...

The main character of Jaroslav HasekВ’s The Good Soldier Svejk and His Fortunes during the World War has become one of the Czech legendary heroes. The article deals with the reception of the book abroad in connection to the English translation of the novel. At the beginning, it presents various opinions in the literary criticsВ’ dispute whether Svejk is a suitable representative of the Czech nation abroad. This section culminates by looking for answers to the question who Josef Svejk really is and how to character...