Synopsis
Eight powerful contemporary Czech plays along with four illuminating commentaries by their authors are presented in this volume. The plays are unusual in that all share the same protagonist, the “dissident” writer, Ferdinand Vanek.
In Czechoslovakia, these plays can only circulate in faded, dog-eared typescripts. These clandestine “unbooks” have become a vital force in current Czech literature. It is especially gratifying, therefore, to present the Vanek plays in a book which will endure.
When Vaclav Havel first invented his fictional playwright to entertain his friends in 1975, he had no idea that Vanek would be 'taken over' by three of them -- all real Czech writers. Between them, Havel, Pavel Kohout, Pavel Landovsky, and Jiri Dienstbier have made what Havel has called the 'Vanek principle' into public property. The plays explore the realism of the strange mixing of fact and fiction, levity and seriousness. While Vanek says little in the plays, his silence is an eloquent retort to the falsehoods of bureaucratic language and jargon.
Vanek has greater freedom than his creators. Havel and Dienstbier continue to live in the Eastern bloc, while Kohout and Landovsky, both now residents of Vienna, cannot return to Czechoslovakia. Their corporate character, however, has managed to travel all over the world. The Vanek plays have been staged in many European countries as well as in the United States.
With the exception of the three plays by Havel, these translations have been especially prepared for this volume.
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Language Notes
Text: English, Czech (translation)
Review
The editor's circumspect introduction informs the reader not only about the individual authors but also about the individual plays which form a surprising and remarkable whole ... The translations of the plays are uniformly good, some are excellent. (Zdenka Brodska Prameny)
Documents one strange and Kafkaesque aspect of contemporary Czech drama. (Joseph Skvorecky)
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The Vanek Plays: Four Authors, One Character (English and Czech Edition)
Published by
Univ of British Columbia Pr, 2002
ISBN 10: 0774802804
ISBN 13: 9780774802802
Used
Hardcover
Seller: ThriftBooks-Dallas, Dallas, TX, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Hardcover. Condition: Good. No Jacket. Former library book; Missing dust jacket; Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Seller Inventory # G0774802804I3N11