Sylvie Richterová: Essays on Czech Literature
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: February 2, 2016, 19:00 – 21:00
Essayist and novelist Sylvie Richterová presents her new book, Eseje o české literatuře (Essays on Czech Literature) (Pulchra, 2016).
In essence an anthology of her texts from 1975 to 2015, it begins with Švejk’s journey through the labyrinth of nonsense and ends with the journey taken by Comenius’s pilgrim of discovery and redemption. Richterová overturns common stereotypes in explorations of Hašek’s ingenious treatise on idiocy, Karel Čapek’s crucial existential questions and the mystical aspects of Hrabal’s work. She regards the experience of totalitarianism as key in understanding the contemporary world’s communication, ethical and cultural crisis, bringing it face to face with the poetic writings of Holan, Skácel, Kolář, Kabeš, Wernisch, Král, Brousek and Jirous…
Editors Jan Šulc and Petr Šrámek will discuss the author and her work.