Zrození šedé z černé a bílé: pokus o historickou rekonstrukci pojmu šedá zóna

• Authors: Eduard Burget

Title variants

EN

The birth of the grey from the black and white: attempting a historical reconstruction of the “grey zone” concept

• Languages of publication: CS

Abstracts

EN

This study deals with the grey zone phenomenon in the context of literary life under late Communist rule during the 1970s and 1980s in Czechoslovakia. The aim of this text is to attempt to trace, using the method of historical reconstruction, how the concept of the grey zone was understood in Czech and Slovak society before 1989, especially in texts and discussions on dissent and exile that reflected the reality of normalization. These texts show that awarenesss of the grey zone played an essential role in the thinking of dissident and émigré authors, as it challenged bipolar schemes and blackand- white images of social reality in the Czechoslovakia of the time. However, this conception of the grey zone often contradicts today’s journalistic and specialist approaches, which tend to classify the grey zone as a silent or passive majority. This study shows that the definition of what we now call the grey zone was much broader.

Keywords

CS

šedá zóna; exil; disent; literární život; normalizace

EN

grey zone; exile; disidence; literary life; normalization

Discipline

• PHILOLOGY_&_LINGUISTICS: PHILOLOGY & LINGUISTICS

• Publisher: Institute of Czech Literature, Czech Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Česká literatura (Czech Literature)
• Year: 2021
• Volume: 69
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 425-452
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Eduard Burget

• Česká literatura, redakce, Ústav pro českou literaturu AV ČR, v. v. i., Na Florenci 3/1420, 110 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic