Writers’ Institutions and the Crisis of Democracy, 1934–39
Spisovatelské instituce v období krize demokracie (1934–1939)

Summary/Abstract: established in Czechoslovakia in an effort to infl uence current affairs in the 1930s. Their shared feature was the recognition that democracy was in crisis. Unlike other politically oriented arts institutions, for example, the Levá fronta (Left Front), these institutions endeavoured to speak out as representatives of all writers and other artists, and also dynamically to shape literary life. The author describes the genesis of writers’ public engagement beginning in the late 1920s and the context. He discusses the key people and their ideologies, analyzes their public statements, outlines the responses to them and debates they raised in the press, and seeks to identify their relationship to each other. The fi rst and best known of the groups, the Community of Czechoslovak Writers (Obec československých spisovatelů), was established, in late November 1934, in immediate reaction to the events known as the ‘insignia affair’ (insigniáda). The resistance of students at the German University of Prague to the forced transfer of the ancient insignia of Charles University to the Czech University soon led to large nationalist demonstrations and unrest amongst the Czech right wing. Left-wing arts institutions also became their target. The authors from the liberal democratic centre, around Karel Čapek (1890–1938), together with moderate left-wingers, including writers expelled from the Czechoslovak Communist Party and eminent fi gures such as the literary critic F. X. Šalda (1867–1937), as well as Communist intellectuals, agreed on a common anti-Fascist manifesto. Roman Catholic writers refused to participate. A total of 261 individuals and 58 different groups or institutions signed the manifesto, but animosity amongst certain groups prevented

• Details
• Contents