Books published by Karolinum,Nakladatelstvi Univerzity Karlovy,Czech Republic

In the repressive context of East European Communist regimes, how did young girls and boys come to realize their sexuality? What did they do with that self-awareness--and later on, as adults, what strategies did they employ in their dealings with the regime? Queer Encounters with Communist Power answers these questions as it interweaves a groundbreaking queer oral history project with meticulous, original research into the discourse on homosexuality and transsexuality in Czechoslovakia from 1948 to 1989. Contrary to expectations, the book reveals that despite the Czechoslovak Communist regime's brutality in many areas of life, the state did not carry out a hateful or seditious campaign against homosexual and non-heterosexual people. Rather, the official state sexology offices functioned from the late 1970s onward as essentially the first gay clubs in socialist Czechoslovakia. Interweaving the memories of non-heterosexual Czech women born between 1929 and 1952, Vera Sokolov 's study both enriches and challenges existing scholarship on lesbian and gay history during this era, promising to radically change the way we view gender, sexuality, and everyday life during East European socialism.

Although Czech scenographer and painter Jaroslav Malina (1937-2016) lived in turbulent times, he won international respect for his work. Spanning Malina's entire life--from his early years in the Nazi protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, through four decades under communism and the period after the Velvet Revolution returned the Czech state to democracy--the essays and interviews in this volume examine the depth and breadth of his accomplishments. Essays by scholars from the Czech Republic, United Kingdom, and the United States clarify and illuminate Malina's contributions to art both in Central Europe and across the world. Exploring multiple aspects of Malina's career, they shed light on his roots in modernism, which characterized the years of the First Republic (1918-38), through the advent of postmodernism, contextualizing his accomplishments in a variety of media while adding insights about his methods and their philosophical underpinnings. Appearing in print for the first time, interview transcripts provide an intimate view of the impulses that guided Malina over the course of his career. Also featuring over one hundred and fifty color images that illustrate the connections between Malina's public scenographic work and his more personal paintings, this book reveals Malina as an artist who continued to work during difficult and changing times without ever losing a very human approach to life.

University Town. Prague has been a center of university education for centuries, and in this book, Josef Petrn and Lydia Petrnov guide us through the history and architecture of Pragues diverse universities, enlightening us about academic life and the integral role played by the universities in the social and cultural life of the Czech capital city. Pragues rise as the ultimate university town began on April 7, 1348, when Charles IV, King of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor, founded the first institution of higher education north of the Alps and east of the Rhine. During the second half of the sixteenth century, Charles University faced

Written by a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust, The Shop on Main Street is the story that inspired the highly successful Academy Award-winning Czechoslovak film of the same title. Looking at the Holocaust through the eyes of a complicit individual, the narrative follows a good-natured carpenter living in a Slovak town in 1942 who unwittingly becomes a participant in a moral crisis involving the abuse and persecution of Jews. Describing the film adaptation of Ladislav Grosman's novel, the New York Times declared that it is a "human drama that is a moving manifest of the dark dilemma that confronted all people who were caught as witnesses to Hitler's terrible crime." The review continues: "'Is one his brother's keeper?' is the thundering question the situation asks, and then, 'Are not all men brothers?' The answer given is a grim acknowledgement. But the unfolding of the drama is simple, done in casual, homely, humorous terms--until the terrible, heartbreaking resolution of the issue at the end."

Described by Parul Sehgal in the New York Times Book Review as "one of the great prose stylists of the twentieth century; the scourge of state censors; the gregarious bar hound and lover of gossip, beer, cats, and women (in roughly that order)," Bohumil Hrabal is one of the most important, most translated, and most idiosyncratic Czech authors. In Bohumil Hrabal: A Full-Length Portrait, Jiří Pelán makes the case that this praise is far too narrow. A respected scholar of French and Italian literature, Pelán approaches Hrabal as a comparatist, expertly situating him within the context of European and world literature as he explores the entirety of Hrabal's oeuvre and its development over sixty years. Concise, clear, and as compulsively readable as the works of Hrabal himself, Bohumil Hrabal was universally praised by critics in its original Czech edition as one of best works of Hrabal criticism. Here it is beautifully rendered into English for the first time by David Short, a celebrated translator of Hrabal's works. Also featuring a fascinating selection of black-and-white images from Hrabal's life, Bohumil Hrabal is essential reading for anyone interested in this crucial Czech author.

Syntax-Semantics Interface is a collection of papers written by leading Czech linguist Eva Hajičová between 1973 and 2014 that draw on the theoretical framework of the functional generative description proposed by Petr Sgall in the early 1960s and developed since. The book reflects Hajičová's research contributions to four main domains: the specification of underlying (deep) sentence structure (analyzed in terms of dependency relations); the information structure of the sentence (topic-focus articulation) and its relation to the specification of presupposition and negation and to other related phenomena; the building of a scheme for an annotated corpus of Czech to serve, among other things, in the verification of theoretical linguistic claims; and some fundamental aspects of discourse structure, namely the concept of the hierarchy of elements in the stock of knowledge shared by speaker and hearer. Through new introductory statements, Hajičová also compares her original findings with current state-of-the-art of linguistic theory at home and abroad.

Scenes from the Cultural History of Russian Religiosity.

A stunningly illustrated look at the capital of the Czech Republic at its height of wealth and power and artistic fervor during the Austrian empire period.

Explores the political, social, and aesthetical dimensions of Spartakiads-mass Czechoslovak gymnastic demonstrations and sporting parades held every five years from 1955 to 1985 to mark the 1945 liberation of Czechoslovakia.

The Atlas of Religions in Czechia represents the first comprehensive geographical analysis of the religious landscape of Czechia and its transformation since the fall of communism in 1989. The atlas is divided into three parts. The first section tackles regional differentiation between select religious movements and groups within the last two decades; the second focuses on sacred objects in their environment and their deployment in ten model regions across Czechia; and the final part analyzes the relational context of specific spatial, socioeconomic, and demographic factors connected to religiosity in contemporary Czech society. Every chapter includes a cartographic section that explains these phenomena in their regional context, thereby illustrating the diversity, development, historical continuity, and global influences of Czech religiosity.

In Fragmented Lives, Gulag survivor Jacques Rossi opens a window onto everyday life inside the notorious Soviet prison camp through a series of portraits of inmates and camp personnel across all walks of life--from workers to peasants, soldiers, civil servants, and party apparatchiks.

Drawing together renowned historians from nine countries--the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, the former Yugoslavia, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia--this book explores life in exile as experienced by the governments of Czechoslovakia and other occupied nations who found refuge in the British capital.

Set in 1943 Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, J. R. Pick's novella Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals tells the story of Tony, a thirteen-year-old boy who is deported from Prague to the infamous Terezi-n ghetto for Jews.

These new editions of the first universal textbooks for studying Czech as a foreign language employ a strictly communication-based format that requires no mediating language and thus is ideal for users of all mother tongues. Fresh and modern in their approach, these books systematically develop all language skills-reading, speaking, listening, and writing-using engaging illustrations and texts that emphasize the natural dialogical character of the language as used in everyday speech. Jitka Cvejnova's extensive experience teaching intensive, immersive classes and introducing foreign learners to the Czech world through language also enables her to enrich the books with valuable sociocultural context. Consequently the only Czech language textbooks based on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages levels, they are ideal for use in both short-term and long-term courses. Cesky, prosim I is intended for young adult and adult beginners. Including both a textbook and a workbook, its content meets the demands of level A1.

A graphic novel collection of stories from the Czech Republic of the experience of war, totalitarianism, and dictatorship, showing how it remains a threat today.

Always in the shadow of their more famous urban neighbors, small towns are consistently overlooked in historical research, especially in Europe. This book investigates the ramifications of that tendency for development initiatives.

St Vitus' Cathedral in Prague Castle is one of the symbols of the Czech statehood; it is the coronation and burial site of Bohemian kings and it has remained a leading Christian cathedral, the residence of archbishops, the venue for state ceremonies and, last but not least, a much sought-after tourist attraction. This book by renowned experts presents the history of the cathedral, inseparably linked to the history of the Czech Lands, in chronological order. This traditional exposition focusing on history and art history is based on the results of archaeological research as well as on preserved historical documents. The scholars present the circumstances of the cathedral's foundation by Charles IV in the 14th century, the progression of the construction, including later alterations and additions. The focus of their exposition lies in a detailed description of the sculpted and artistic decoration, significant monuments (St Wenceslaus' Chapel containing the crown jewels, the building's foundations, and the burial site of Bohemian kings). The text, set in a the broader context of the developments of European architecture, is richly illustrated with contemporary photographs, historical images, reconstructions and plans.

At the end of the nineteenth century, Czech figural sculpture achieved an artistic quality comparable to that of contemporary artworks produced in the main artistic centers of Europe, including the sculptures of Auguste Rodin, Constantin Meunier, and Antoine Bourdelle. But while their counterparts across Europe achieved lasting international renown, Czech sculptors remain relatively unknown. Published to accompany an exhibition at the Prague City Gallery, The Restless Figure shapes a new understanding of these artists' stories. Tracing the development and significance of Czech sculpture through period texts and images that illustrate the intellectual milieu of the times, the book shows that while Czech artists were directly influenced by the Prague exhibitions of world-famous sculptors, it was their own work that drove the development of Prague's dynamic art. In particular, sculptor Josef Václav Myslbek--together with younger artists like Frantisek Bílek, Stanislav Sucharda, and others--helped to fashion the public space of a modernizing Prague thorough commissions. Featuring many photographs from the sculptors' estates that offer a unique view of individual works through the eyes of their creators, this book opens a beautiful window onto the history of both a city and an art form.