Rok 1938: Spisovatelé tančící mezi vejci
1938: Authors Walking on Eggshells

Summary/Abstract: This study reviews Czechoslovak writers’ engagement internationally as part of the PEN Club in the interwar period, stressing the crucial year of 1938. It contributes to the history of cultural diplomacy and to the history of the role of the intellectual in modern times. After the end of the First World War, a strong faith in international cooperation and the power of dialogue dominated Europe and was projected onto the inception of the League of Nations and the International PEN Club (1921). Authors from Czechoslovakia, especially Karel Čapek, played active roles in this organization, but the hopes of the interwar era were thwarted by the onset of the Second World War. The study investigates what role the PEN International may have played in shaping public opinion during the crisis of 1938 and how the situation developed between the time of the PEN International congress in Prague and the Munich Agreement. Among other matters, the analysis is based on never-before used material of French provenance deposited at the Institut Mémoires de l’édition contemporaine (IMEC) [The Institute for Contemporary Publishing Archives]. Thanks to this material, the study unveils the role played by the President of the PEN International, Jules Romains, during the period under review.

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