Views from the Inside: Czech Underground Literature and Culture (1948–1989). Texts by Ivan M. Jirous, Paul Wilson, Egon Bondy, and Jáchym Topol by Machovec Martin (review)

Abstract

SEER, 98, 2, APRIL 2020 362 about ‘Faith’ and ‘Psychoanalysis’ and their relegation to the ‘purgatory’ of the ‘Further Reading’ section is surprising. It was, after all, Alexandrov who initiated the seminal ‘metaphysical’ trend in Nabokov scholarship, inspired by Véra Nabokov’s comments on the theme of potustoronnost´ in her husband’s work, whilst Green showed both remarkable audacity by going against the ‘ban on psychoanalytical reading’, and striking intellectual acumen when he demonstrated, through careful textual analysis, that Nabokov’s supposed rejection of Freud’s works was more pretence than reality. It is a pity, therefore, that these two did not find a place here that better reflected their formative position in Nabokov studies. Nevertheless, Vladimir Nabokov in Context is a very commendable effort, and a valuable resource on the circumstances that fashioned Nabokov and his art. It is well worth acquiring, although the price of the volume, a brutal £74.99, might deter a number of potential readers. Département des Études du Monde Anglophone René Alladaye Université de Toulouse Jean Jaurès Machovec, Martin (ed.). Views from the Inside: Czech Underground Literature and Culture (1948–1989). Texts by Ivan M. Jirous, Paul Wilson, Egon Bondy, and Jáchym Topol. Karolinum Press, Prague, 2018. 111 pp. Notes. Bibliography.Discography.Documentaryfilmography.Index.CZK260.00 (paperback). English-language readers interested in Czechoslovak culture of the period following the crushing of the 1968 Prague Spring by Warsaw Pact forces — which initiated a twenty-year period of stark political repression known as ‘Normalization’ — have had a skewed selection of primary sources from which to choose. The major essays and plays of Václav Havel, the most famous of the Czech dissidents internationally and later president of the Czech Republic, became available in excellent English translations long ago, as did major novels by certain authors (most living in exile) such as Milan Kundera, Josef Škvorecký and Ivan Klíma, who were critical of the socialist regime. That this particular group of writers came to embody Czechoslovak dissidence for the English-reading public is a quirk of publishing history, however, and has obscured the work of other authors, musicians and intellectuals that a Czechoslovak audience would be quick to recognize as major cultural actors of the period. English-language scholarship in recent years has been busy revising this distorted view of the culture of the Normalization period, but the range of primary texts available in English remains very limited. REVIEWS 363 The present volume presents five texts about this period by major figures from the time. The Normalization era of 1969 to 1989 is the main focus, with some attention to cultural background extending back to 1948, the year Czechoslovakia fell firmly into orbit as a good Soviet satellite state. With one major exception, all five texts constitute retrospective reflections on the period by people who were actively involved. In that sense they help fill out our historical image of the culture of the period but do not expand the corpus of primary texts. This is an important collection nonetheless, as it makes clear that the hitherto dominant picture of dissidence centred on Havel and the Charter 77 civil rights movement requires expansion to include figures from ‘the Underground’. These were primarily young rock musicians and the poets who provided many of their lyrics, who began their activities independently of the better-known group around Havel. The most important of these rock bands is The Plastic People of the Universe, whose beguiling name enjoys a certain recognition, but about whom international audiences know fairly little. The exceptional, and most significant, text in this volume is an essay by Ivan M. Jirous, who was the artistic director of the Plastic People — a role that belies his extraordinary importance for alternative culture of the Normalization period. Jirous’s ‘Report on the Third Czech Musical Revival’ appeared in 1975 and represents a manifesto of sorts, a first attempt to take stock of the aims and inspirations of the young people associating with the Underground, who were already braving often brutal encounters with the police for what might appear the quixotic purpose of listening to a particular type of music. Jirous presents a loose and selective history...