Eurozine
2009-08-18
ARCHE 6/2009 is dedicated to Czech culture and literature as indicators of the political and economic transformation in the country over the last decades.
The issue opens with a preface by the guest editor Siarhiej Smatrycenka, who summarizes his experience of a mediator between Belarusian and Czech cultures. The issue presents the comics "Alois Nebel. Prachaticky Amber" by Jaroslav Rudis and Jaromír 99. The rubric "Literature" includes poetry by Vlastimil Stanik; "Minsk pages"; short stories by Bára Gregorová "Stone - Mountain - Paper"; "Plastic apartments" by Petra Hulová; "The name" by Eda Kriseová; poetry by Pavla Shyarstna, Radek Maly, Marie Shuranska, and Viola Fischerová; and a grotesque story by Jan Pelc, "The Last Smoke". Katerina Sidonová is present with her short story "Tramway". Premysl Rut re-interprets the classical fairytale of "Little Red Riding Hood" in his short story of the same title. The section ends with a piece by Petr Janecek, from a collection of blackly comic stories entitled, "The black Ambulance and other horrible stories", as well as a narrative by Prague-based Belarusian author Maks Scur, "Notes from the writer's house".
Luděk Navara highlights in "We Have to Struggle for the Past" the Milan Kundera case. This famous writer was reportedly the agent of the Czech communist special services. Josef Broz follows in his "Czech politics: The tale of two Saint Vaclavs: Havel and Klaus" both Vaclavs' political trajectories. Karel Dolejsi, in "The radar in the Czech Republic", analyses the public reaction to the possible deployment in the country of some elements of the America-designed missile shield. Bohumil Kartous observes the transformation of the Czech media landscape in "The painful regeneration of totalitarian society: Twenty years of birth throes in the Media Prism."
In the rubric "Analytics": Klára Kubíckova's "The bureaucracy tentacles of the Jan Kaplicky octopus", Angela Rogner's "Foreigners in the Czech Republic: Who needs whom?", Jana Horváthová's "Don't see, don't hear, don't speak. Why the Czechs don't manage to part with the gipsy problem", Anna Sabatová's "Chapter 77: A unique experience or a source of inspiration until now?"
ARCHE also publishes an interview with Anna Shabatová, entitled "I try to see my life positively" and another with Václav Cilek, "Does our landscape impact on our soul? Conversation on the Czech landscape and Hip-Hop". In the rubric "Essay", a fragment from Mariusz Szczygie's book "Gottland".
Alexej Sevruk reflects on the perception of central Europe in "The Czech Republic in Polish Eyes"; Cichan Carniakievic reviews recent translations from Czech into Belarusian. The issue closes with historical texts: Václav Benda's "A parallel polis"; Petr Placák's "An agent"; Vladimír Macura's "Fin de siecle"; and an interview with a Czech nun by Petra Dvoráková.