Between Poverty and Protest : Thorn and Pitchfork as Student Protest Platforms in Interwar Czechoslovakia

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11210%2F25%3A10502108" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11210/25:10502108 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

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DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Between Poverty and Protest : Thorn and Pitchfork as Student Protest Platforms in Interwar Czechoslovakia

Original language description

I will examine two student-published magazines, Thorn (Trn) and Pitchfork (Vidle), produced by students from the Dormitory for the Destitute in Hradčany, Prague, during the 1920s. Founded in 1919 and named after President Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, this dormitory was located in inadequate premises shared with an enforcement office and a Capuchin monastery. These conditions fostered a sense of protest and radicalism, evident in the tone and content of these publications.The main topics in both magazines were critiques of the students&apos; harsh living conditions, including inadequate food, clothing, and state support. They also contained satirical attacks on figures such as war veterans, polititcians and prominent student leaders. Through humor and pointed commentary, Thorn gained popularity beyond the student population, becoming a significant protest platform with wide circulation. Although it ceased publication in 1932, its influence endured through the memoirs and media appearances of its editors in the 1960s and 1970s, when its leftist orientation was reinterpreted as a symbol of resistance to the interwar bourgeois republic.This presentation will explore Thorn and Pitchfork as valuable witnesses to the mindset of emerging student intellectuals in interwar Czechoslovakia. Through their satirical and often radical humor, these magazines reflected the frustrations of young students while resonating with a broader audience. My approach will center on the internal reception of these magazines among dormitory students, analyzing how they commented on both local issues and broader societal realities, while also tracing how participation in their creation was reinterpreted after 1948, offering insights into how student activism was recontextualized in different political eras.By analyzing these publications, I aim to shed light on how student humor and critique served as a form of social commentary, shaping identification during a period of political and cultural transformation.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

O - Miscellaneous

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

60101 - History (history of science and technology to be 6.3, history of specific sciences to be under the respective headings)

Project

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Continuities

S - Specificky vyzkum na vysokych skolach

Publication year

2025

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů