Informatorium české undergroundové kultury v období „normalizace“
Informatory of the Czech underground culture in the “normalization” period

Summary/Abstract: Stárek Čuňas, František and Martin Valenta: Podzemní symfonie Plastic People. Prague: Argo and Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů, 376 pp., ISBN 978-80-257-2522-1 and 978-80-88292-04-3. The publication titled The underground symphony of Plastic People captures the story of the Czech underground band Plastic People of the Universe since its formation in 1968 via the political trial with its members led by the programme theoretician of the underground culture Ivan Martin Jirous (1944–2011), which prompted the Charter 77 initiative, until its disintegration in the late 1980s. The authors attempt to approach the story as a part of the Czech cultural history and, in the reviewer’s opinion, they have succeeded in collecting various data snippets scattered in different documents and set them into a period context. As a rule, they approach the data critically and provide a good information service to the reader. At the same time, however, the reviewer notes the book’s unbalancedlanguage, formulation and terminological problems and material errors that reduce the publication’s quality.

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