Alena Vostrá (May 17, 1938,

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

– April 15, 1992, Prague) was a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places *Czech, ...

novelist. One of her most popular works was ''

A Matter of Days A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes'' ...

''. She was born as Rozená Obdržálková in Prague and in 1956, after graduating from the high school, studied engineering at

Czech Technical University in Prague Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU, cs, České vysoké učení technické v Praze, ČVUT) is one of the largest university, universities in the Czech Republic with 8 faculties, and is one of the oldest institutes of technology in Centra ...

for two semesters, then stopped and started her studies at the

Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague The Department of Dramatic Theatre (DAMU) is one of three departments at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (alongside the Film and TV school and the Department of Music). The academy was opened in 1945 immediately after the Second World ...

(DAMU). In 1960, she was expelled for "individualism", but she was eventually allowed to continue with her studies. In 1962, she started to specialize in

dramaturgy Dramaturgy is the study of dramatic composition and the Representation (arts), representation of the main elements of drama on the stage. The term first appears in the eponymous work ''Hamburg Dramaturgy'' (1767–69) by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing ...

. In 1963, she married the author

Jaroslav Vostrý Jaroslav (also written as Yaroslav or Jarosław in other Slavic languages) is a Czech and Slovak first name, pagan in origin. There are several possible origins of the name Jaroslav. It is very likely that originally the two elements of the nam ...

. Vostrá started to publish in 1963. She graduated in 1966. Alena Vostrá wrote mainly theater pieces and screenplays, as well as fiction and fairy tales for children. In the theater pieces, her characters often encounter the grotesque reality of life. In prose, she often underlines connections between seemingly unimportant things.

References

1938 births 1992 deaths 20th-century Czech writers 20th-century Czech women writers Czech children's writers Czech Technical University in Prague alumni Czech screenwriters Czech dramatists and playwrights Dramaturges {{CzechRepublic-writer-stub