Cost and Registration Information

Early Registration Price (by May 19): $220
Regular Price (after May 19): $242

Seminar Description

Through close reading and analysis of Milan Kundera’s world bestseller, The Joke, and of Bohumil Hrabal’s best-selling novels, I Served the King of England and Closely Watched Trains, we shall demonstrate how the unique features of Czech literary history intertwine with the equally idiosyncratic outlines of Czech political history. The ways Kundera and Hrabal’s writings became political events are only a few (though a rather convincing few) examples of how ineluctable the bond between literature and politics could become in the pressure cooker of a small Central European nation. Seven sessions.

Dagmar Herrmann, a long-time Newberry instructor, is an award-winning translator and independent scholar. She lived and studied in Prague.

Materials List

Required:

• Kundera, Milan. The Joke (Definitive Version). Harper Perennial, 1993. ISBN-10: 006099505X, ISBN-13: 978-0060995058
• Hrabal, Bohumil. I Served the King of England. New Directions, 2007. ISBN-13 978-0-8112-1687-6
• Hrabal, Bohumil. Closely Watched Trains. Northwestern University Press, 1995. ISBN-13 0-8101-0857-7

First Readings:

• You do not need to prepare anything for the first class session.

This class is part of the Newberry’s Adult Education Seminars Program. Learn more about our registration procedures.