Host
Eurozine
2007-06-04
Abstracts for Host 5/2007
Me, a beatnik, I am number one in the Society of Czech Writers (interview with the poet Inka Machulkova)
Inka Machulkova is a representative of the Czech beat generation. In the 1960s, she was a leading figure of the literary scene, although she only managed to publish one collection of poems before she emigrated to Germany in 1968. The interview by Miroslav Balastik deals with her life story, the situation of today's Czech literature, and the life in exile.
My only ambition is to go where my heart pulls me... (Interview with Petra Dvorakova)
Petra Dvorakova's Transformed Dreams is an astonishing collection of ten interviews investigating the hidden, often not very enticing aspects of the life within the Catholic church. The book, published last year, provoked a vivid response among both readers and critics, but the reaction of the ecclesiastical circles was far from excited. What moved the author to make a book which, subsequently, deeply affected her personal life? Which is the role of the Catholic church within the Czech society? Has it anything to offer today's man. Not only these questions are dealt with in the interview with the publicist Petra Dvorakova.
Josef Rauvolf
Beat Generation the Czech Way. Echos of the Beat Generation authors in the Czech lands
When pictures of unshaven and unkempt youngsters in work shirts and worn jeans started appearing in the American media in the mid-1950s, they were obviously found scandalous and shocking. America really wasn't used to that sort of image in those days: quite a different kind of looks was the norm. Articles accompanying these provocative portraits spoke of a group of poets which formed itself above all in San Francisco, California, and which soon came to be called the Beat Generation.