Abstract
The Czechoslovak New Wave represents an important chapter in the history of Central European cinema, and the body of films produced in Czechoslovakia in the 1960s is deservedly considered part of both national and European cultural heritage. This essay draws on the notion that the canon of the New Wave has established itself as a myth, obscuring the visibility of the newer Czech film production. Searching for the roots of the discursive nature of this canon, it finds it in a synergy of two opposing cultures. While the conservative communist power compiled the index of films associated with the 1960s reform process in order to stop their circulation, the dissenting community incorporated the same canon as a part of its collision with that power, a collision which manifested among others in the field of language. The transition of Czech cinema in the 1990s brought the Czechoslovak New Wave back to the spotlight, yet previous rhetorical use of this canon deepened the confusion between the discursive and the aesthetic and affirmed it as an unequivocal national monument. Exploring these tensions, I conclude that a new reading of the Czechoslovak New Wave heritage might be needed to make way for newer canons of films experimenting with different aesthetic and production approaches.
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