Josef Jedlička (16 March 1927 – 5 December 1990) was a Czech writer. Jedlička studied

aesthetics Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed thr ...

and

ethnography Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...

Prague University ) , image_name = Carolinum_Logo.svg , image_size = 200px , established = , type = Public, Ancient , budget = 8.9 billion CZK , rector = Milena Králíčková , faculty = 4,057 , administrative_staff = 4,026 , students = 51,438 , underg ...

, but after the

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

revolution in 1948 he was kicked out of university for being an anticommunist. He then worked in various professions - as laborer, teacher, TV assistant, and tutor among them. After 1953 he moved to

Litvínov Litvínov (; german: Leutensdorf) is a town in Most District in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 22,000 inhabitants. It is known as an industrial centre. Administrative parts Litvínov is made up of 12 town parts an ...

, an industrial town in northern

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...

. Being an anticommunist, he was prohibited from publishing anything, but he wrote novels and short stories secretly and read them in circle of his close friends, among them

Jan Zábrana Jan Zábrana (4 July 1931 in Herálec – 3 September 1984 in Prague) was a Czech writer and translator. His parents were teachers and politicians persecuted by the communist regime after the communist revolution of 1948: his mother, a member of ...

Bohumil Hrabal Bohumil Hrabal (; 28 March 1914 – 3 February 1997) was a Czech writer, often named among the best Czech writers of the 20th century. Early life Hrabal was born in Židenice (suburb of Brno) on 28 March 1914, in what was then the province ...

and other prohibited writers of the time. In 1966, after 18 years of prohibition, Jedlička was allowed to publish an experimental novel ''Kde život náš je v půli se svou poutí'' (''Midway Upon the Journey of Our Life''), written in the early 1950s; parts of this book were censored in this edition by the communist censors, the complete version would be published in 1994 after the fall of communist regime in Czechoslovakia. Nevertheless the book, with parts censored, caused scandal and was said to be antisocialist and once again Jedlička was prohibited from publishing. Only in 1968, was Jedlička allowed to publish few essays about Kafka and

Chaadaev Pyotr or Petr Yakovlevich Chaadayev (russian: Пётр Я́ковлевич Чаада́ев; also spelled Chaadaev, or Čaadajev; 7 June 7 May Old Style">Old_Style.html" ;"title="7 May Old Style">7 May Old Style1794 – 26 April

4 April O.S. 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smallest c ...

...

in literature magazines. After the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

occupation of Czechoslovakia in August 1968, Jedlička was exiled to

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

. He eventually lived in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

, where he worked as editor and commentator for Radio Free Europe during the 1970s and 1980s. He died in Augsburg, Germany, in 1990, where he is buried.

Work

*Kde život náš je v půli se svou poutí (''Midway Upon the Journey of Our Life'') written c. 1953, published (censored) Prague 1966, complete edition Prague 1994), English edition Nakladatelstvi Karolinum, 2016 *Krev není voda (''Blood Is No Water''), novel (Prague 1991, German translation DVB 2004) *České typy (''Bohemian Types''), essays about Bohemians and their culture, (Prague 1992) *Rozptýleno v prostoru a čase (''Splittered Through Space and Time''), (Brno 2000), essays on literature, mainly written for Radio Free Europe, Munich

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jedlicka, Josef 1927 births 1990 deaths Czech male writers Charles University alumni