Karel Hynek Mácha was a Czech romantic poet.
Czech literature can refer to literature written in Czech, in the Czech Republic, or by Czech people.
Jaroslav Seifert was a Czech writer, poet and journalist. Seifert was awarded the 1984 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his poetry which endowed with freshness, sensuality and rich inventiveness provides a liberating image of the indomitable spirit and versatility of man".
Jaroslav Ježek was a Czech composer, pianist and conductor, author of jazz, classical, incidental and film music.
Toyen was a Czech painter, drafter, and illustrator and a member of the surrealist movement.
Karel Teige was a Czech modernist avant-garde artist, writer, critic and one of the most important figures of the 1920s and 1930s movement. He was a member of the Devětsil (Butterbur) movement in the 1920s and also worked as an editor and graphic designer for Devětsil's monthly magazine ReD. One of his major works on architecture theory is The Minimum Dwelling (1932).
Konstantin Biebl was a Czech poet and writer. His first collection of poems was released in 1923, and his last in 1951, the year of his death by suicide. During that time he also travelled widely as a reporter. Biebl was a member of the Communist Party Czechoslovakia, and was closely associated with other Czech Communist writers and poets including Jiří Wolker and Vítězslav Nezval.
The Devětsil was an association of Czech avant-garde artists, founded in 1920 in Prague. From 1923 on there was also an active group in Brno. The movement discontinued its activities in 1930.
Jindřich Štyrský was a Czech Surrealist painter, poet, editor, photographer and graphic artist.
Josef Hora was a Czechoslovak poet, literary critic and journalist.
Osvobozené divadlo (1926–1938) was a Prague avant-garde theatre scene founded as the theatre section of an association of Czech avant-garde artists Devětsil (Butterbur) in 1926. The theatre's beginnings were strongly influenced by Dadaism and Futurism, later by Poetism. The theatre was very leftist oriented, but it could also be critical of the Communists. One of the founders, Jiří Frejka, came up with the name in 1926. In the theatre both authorial plays and works by well-established modern authors; such as G. Apollinaire, A. Jarry, J. Cocteau, A. Breton, F. T. Marinetti, and V. Nezval were performed. The modern conception of the scene also laid more emphasis on lighting and the theatrical conception adjured more cooperation and contacts between actors and audience.
Emil František Burian was a Czech poet, journalist, singer, actor, musician, composer, dramatic adviser, playwright and director. He was also a longtime activist in the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.
The Left Front was an organization of left-wing intellectuals in Czechoslovakia, founded in 1929 on the initiative of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.
Jiří Kroha was a Czech architect, painter, sculptor, scenographer, designer and pedagogue. He was an important exponent of Czech architecture and design during inter-war period.
The Diary was written in 1835 by Karel Hynek Mácha, the best-known Czech romantic poet. After deciphering of the parts recorded in code, there was a discussion of the decision to publish the author's private affairs.
Ewald Osers was a Czech translator and poet born in Prague, Austria-Hungary.
Edison is an epic poem by Czech poet Vítězslav Nezval. It was written in 1927. Later it was included in the poetic book Básně noci which was published in 1930. The main hero of the poem is American inventor Thomas Alva Edison, considered by the author to be a modern genius. Nezval's work is a praise of human activity, technology, and science, but also an expression of anxiety about civilisation. Nezval compares the inventor's work to writing poetry. He points out that every creative work demands much toil and courage. After Edison's death in 1931 Nezval wrote Signál času which is an elegy. Both poems are written in the same measure, trochaic hexameter. Nezval uses long enumerations, building sophisticated poetical imagery. Nezval's Edison was probably influenced by Guillaume Apollinaire's work, especially the poem Zone, which was translated into Czech by Karel Čapek.
Poetism was an artistic program in Czechoslovakia which belongs to the avant-garde; it has never spread abroad. It was invented by members of the avant-garde association Devětsil, mainly Vítězslav Nezval and Karel Teige. It is mainly known in the literature form, but it was also intended as a lifestyle. Its poems were apolitical, optimistic, emotional, and proletaristic, describing ordinary, real things and everyday life, dealing mainly with the present time. It uses no punctuation.
Adolf Hoffmeister was a Czech writer, publicist, playwright, painter, draughtsman, scenographer, cartoonist, translator, diplomat, lawyer, university professor and traveller. During the war, editor of the radio station Voice of America, after the war ambassador in Paris, since 1951 professor at the Academy of Arts and Crafts in Prague. He was a founding member of Devětsil (1920), chairman of the Union of Czechoslovak Visual Artists, a member of International Association of Art Critics. Hoffmeister represented Czechoslovakia at UNESCO, the PEN Club and other international organizations. Hoffmeister's career was ended by the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968 and the subsequent occupation.
Milča Mayerová was a Czech dancer and choreographer.
