Ivan Sviták (10 October 1925 – 20 October 1994) was a Czech philosopher, critic, and poet who ranked among Europe's most prominent proponents of

Marxist humanism Marxist humanism is an international body of thought and political action rooted in an interpretation of the works of Karl Marx. It is an investigation into "what human nature consists of and what sort of society would be most conducive to huma ...

Career

In a vast oeuvre of essays, Sviták addressed questions of democracy and socialism, of art in bureaucratic and consumer societies, and of the "unbearable burden" of political catastrophe in Czech history. In addition, Sviták wrote an extensive body of fiction and poetry, in which he "sought a unity of philosophy, literature, and politics, a unity of engagement, wisdom, and poetry." In this, Sviták consciously followed in the footsteps of the surrealist movement that he admired and critically defended on numerous occasions. These essays often self-published by Svitak were collected by Joseph Grim Feinberg and published in book form as “The Windmills of Humanity” by Charles H. Kerr Publishing Company in Chicago. In the 1960s, Sviták was one of

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

's most vocal advocates of

democratic socialism Democratic socialism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and workers' self- ...

(a distinction he shared with Karel Kosík, Czechoslovakia's other prominent Marxist humanist philosopher). After the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968, Sviták was stripped of his citizenship and sentenced to a lengthy jail term. Instead of serving the jail term, he chose to emigrate, first to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and in 1970 to Chico, California, where he was offered an academic position. Sviták worked at Cal State Chico until 1990, when he returned to Czechoslovakia after the end of

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

rule. In the early 1990s Sviták remained a staunch proponent of

, turning his critical pen to the new,

post-Communist Post-communism is the period of political and economic transformation or transition in former communist states located in Eastern Europe and parts of Africa and Asia in which new governments aimed to create free market-oriented capitalist economi ...

regime.''Ztracené iluze : výroční zpráva o sametové revoluci'', Prague 1990. He died in

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 ...

in 1994.

Selected publications in English

* ''Man and his World: A Marxian View'', New York:

Dell Pub. Co. Dell Publishing Company, Inc. is an American publisher of books, magazines and comic books, that was founded in 1921 by George T. Delacorte Jr. with $10,000 (approx. $145,000 in 2021), two employees and one magazine title, I Confess (magazine), ...

, 1970 (translation of ''Lidský smysl kultury,'' including a slightly different selection of essays). * ''The Czechoslovak Experiment, 1968–1969'', New York, Columbia U. Press, 1971. * “Illusions of Czech Socialist Democracy�
''Telos''
22 (Winter 1974–75). New York: Telos Press. * ''The Unbearable Burden of History: The Sovietization of Czechoslovakia'', Academia, 1990. * ''The Windmills of Humanity'', edited and introduced by Joseph Grim Feinberg, Chicago: Charles H Kerr, 2014.

Selected publications in Czech

* ''Lidský smysl kultury : eseje'' ("The Human Meaning of Culture," translated as "Man and His World"), Prague 1968 * ''Dialektika moci'' ("The Dialectic of Power"), Cologne, 1973 * ''Děvčátko s červenou mašlí : povídky a pohádky'' ("The Girl with the Red Ribbon: Stories and Fairy Tales"), Zürich, 1975 * ''Nevědecká antropologie : dialectica modo bohemico demonstrata'' ("Unscientific Anthropology"), Chico, California, 1984 * ''Národ na křižovatce : dialektika dějin'' ("The Nation at a Crossroads: The Dialectic of History"), Prague, 1989 * ''Budoucnost bez komunismu'' ("The Future without Communism"), Prague, 1990 * ''Kulatý čtverec : dialektika demokratizace : úvahy a statě, članky z let 1968-1969'' ("Squaring the Circle: The Dialectic of Democratization: Reflections and Articles from 1968-1969"), Prague, 1990 * ''Ztracené iluze : výroční zpráva o sametové revoluci'' ("Lost Illusions: An Anniversary Message about the Velvet Revolution"), Prague, 1990 * ''Cesta odnikud nikam'' ("The Road from Nowhere to Nowhere"), Prague, 1991 * ''Devět životů : konkrétní dialektika'' ("Nine Lives: Concrete Dialectics"), Prague, 1992

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Svitak, Ivan 1925 births 1994 deaths People from Hranice (Přerov District) Czech humanists 20th-century Czech philosophers Czech poets Czech male poets California State University, Chico faculty Marxist humanists 20th-century Czech poets