Czech literature after 1989 conference: "Rêve tchèque"
On Monday 8 December 2022, the Prague House hosted the closing event of the conference "Rêve tchèque", focused on Czech literature after 1989. The conference was organised by UMR Eur’ORBEM - Cultures et sociétés d’Europe orientale, balkanique et médiane (Faculté des lettres de Sorbonne Université & CNRS), Centre d’études tchèques, PHILIXTE, ULB (LTC - Faculté de Lettres, Traduction et Communication).
The end of communism in Bohemia after 1989 was hailed by Czech writers as the culmination of a long process of self-determination and liberation from ideological constraints. Based on the festive atmosphere that characterized the early 1990s, one might have hoped for a proliferation of rich and innovative literary creations that would bring new Kundera and Hrabal onto the European literary scene. However, this “Czech literary dream” (to play on the title of a striking essay by Vladimír Macura) was confronted with significant challenges, going beyond the literary field, which we wish to analyze during this conference.
This conference aimed to explore the processes at work on the territory of Czechia in the literary field since the end of the 1980s and the political changes in the region. It brought together specialists in Czech literature, invited to exchange their discoveries of texts and authors, their analyzes of current mutations and crises, their understanding of poetic innovations. The ambition of the conference was to apply to the post 1989 an informative survey and an attempt to analyze this period.