果冻影院

The 果冻影院 FRINGE Centre, the SSEES Study of Central Europe Seminar, and the Czech Centre London present

V谩clav Havel European Dialogues 2023

Following a word of welcome from聽P艡emysl Pela聽(Czech Centre London) we feature a discussion with celebrated Czech author聽J谩chym Topol,聽author of i.a. A Sensitive Person (Eng. trans., Yale, 2023); Angel Station (Eng. trans., Dalkey Archive, 2017); The Devil鈥檚 Workshop (Eng. trans., Portobello, 2013); Gargling With Tar (Eng. trans., Portobello, 2010); and City/Sister/Silver (Eng. trans. Catbird, 2000), who will talk about practicing creative literature in the final years of Czechoslovak Communism and the early years thereafter.

Followed by a roundtable discussion:

鈥楪aming the System: Language, Conformism, and Breaking Conventions, From V谩clav Havel鈥檚 Absurdism to the Age of X鈥�

2023 marks the 60th anniversary of The Garden Party, one of Havel鈥檚 most famous plays. Often understood as an Absurdist critique of modern bureaucracy, the play is also a tale about an ambitious young man who becomes a master of 鈥榞aming the system鈥�. Havel鈥檚 protagonist Hugo thus embodies a paradox: he shows the extraordinary social pressure placed on people to conform to social expectations if they are to get ahead in life, but he simultaneously demonstrates the enormous creativity through which they find ways to 鈥榞ame the system鈥� and break the rules. This round-table discussion will explore this curious dynamic of conformism and unconventionality, of obedience and rule-bending, of socialization and sabotage, and will consider how far Havel鈥檚 mid-20th-century example of formalized bureaucratic communication (and the implicit parallel to authoritarian power structures) holds for early 21st-century culture and in particular for the ways social media have changed the way we interact for better and for ill.

Discussants:

Tim Beasley-Murray聽is Associate Professor of European thought and Culture at 果冻影院 and works on literature, politics and ideas in English, French, German and sometimes Czech and Slovak. He has written a book on games (and how they can be serious) that will come out later this year.

Barbara Day聽arrived as a student in Prague in 1965, just in time to see the original productions of Havel's plays and to experience the great surge of theatre activity. She maintained her connections with Czechoslovakia through the years of the Soviet occupation and consequent 鈥楴ormalisation鈥�. In 1985 she created the Bristol Czech Fest and the same year began to work with the 鈥榰nderground university鈥�, through the Oxford-based Jan Hus Educational Foundation. In 1999 she published The Velvet Philosophers and in 2019 Trial by Theatre: Reports on the Czech Drama.

Erin Plunkett聽is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy and Religious Studies at the University of Hertfordshire. She is co-editor with Ivan Chvat铆k of the Selected Writings of Jan Pato膷ka: Care for the Soul (Bloomsbury, 2022), and author of A Philosophy of the Essay: Scepticism, Experience and Style (Bloomsbury, 2020).

David S. Danaher聽is a Professor of and Program Head for Slavic Studies in the Department of German, Nordic, and Slavic at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His two most recent books are Reading V谩clav Havel (University of Toronto Press, 2015) and, co-edited with Kieran Williams, V谩clav Havel's Meanings: His Key Words, Their Context and Legacy (Karolinum Press and University of Chicago Press, forthcoming 2023). He has taught a monograph course on Havel's writing to undergraduates from all disciplines since 2002.

Moderator:

Peter Zusi, Associate Professor of Czech and Comparative Literature, 果冻影院.

The roundtable discussion will be followed by a wine reception.

The 2023 V谩clav Havel European Dialogues are supported by the Sekyra Foundation and are an initiative of the V谩clav Havel Library.

Image credit: Czech Centre London