The Beat Generation in Communist Czechoslovakia: the Editorial Paratexts and the Construction of the Author

Kód výsledku v IS VaVaI

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Výsledek na webu

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DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Jazyk výsledku

angličtina

Název v původním jazyce

The Beat Generation in Communist Czechoslovakia: the Editorial Paratexts and the Construction of the Author

Popis výsledku v původním jazyce

After the controversy surrounding Josef Škvorecký’s novel The Cowards in the late 1950s, the official ideologues in communist Czechoslovakia increased their stranglehold on literature. As a result, publishing Western and especially American literature, already a challenging and politicized task, had been constrained even further. Therefore, publishers had to carefully package their releases in order to appease the censors. The most common means of such textual reconstruction were cautiously written book covers and especially editorial prefaces or afterwords. This was also the case with the publication of several Beat Generation texts during the period. Publisher’s paratexts, such as the afterwords of the editor Jan Zábrana, usually contrasted the author’s life in relation to the values of socialist Czechoslovakia. By highlighting not only the Beats’ dissatisfaction with American consumerism but also their inability to reach the “correct” ideological stance, these paratexts managed to portray the Beats as nonconformist, yet still ideologically acceptable writers, and therefore fit for publication. Sharply contrasting with the often sensationalist portrayal of the Beats in their home country, the textual strategies of Czechoslovak editors necessary for publication of the Beats thus reveal the publisher’s paratexts as texts able to reconstruct the author in a frequently contradictory manner.

Název v anglickém jazyce

The Beat Generation in Communist Czechoslovakia: the Editorial Paratexts and the Construction of the Author

Popis výsledku anglicky

After the controversy surrounding Josef Škvorecký’s novel The Cowards in the late 1950s, the official ideologues in communist Czechoslovakia increased their stranglehold on literature. As a result, publishing Western and especially American literature, already a challenging and politicized task, had been constrained even further. Therefore, publishers had to carefully package their releases in order to appease the censors. The most common means of such textual reconstruction were cautiously written book covers and especially editorial prefaces or afterwords. This was also the case with the publication of several Beat Generation texts during the period. Publisher’s paratexts, such as the afterwords of the editor Jan Zábrana, usually contrasted the author’s life in relation to the values of socialist Czechoslovakia. By highlighting not only the Beats’ dissatisfaction with American consumerism but also their inability to reach the “correct” ideological stance, these paratexts managed to portray the Beats as nonconformist, yet still ideologically acceptable writers, and therefore fit for publication. Sharply contrasting with the often sensationalist portrayal of the Beats in their home country, the textual strategies of Czechoslovak editors necessary for publication of the Beats thus reveal the publisher’s paratexts as texts able to reconstruct the author in a frequently contradictory manner.

Druh

O - Ostatní výsledky

CEP obor

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OECD FORD obor

60200 - Languages and Literature

Projekt

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Návaznosti

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Rok uplatnění

2018

Kód důvěrnosti údajů

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