Word: havelent
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Amid uncertainty and confusion it is good to write and read about a hero," Eda Kriseova writes in her preface to Vaclav Havel, the Authorized Biography. However, when her book was first published in Czechoslovakia, "literary critics attacked me for having written a pretty story, a fairy tale." It is good to talk about a hero in our times. If such a hero could exist, Vaclav Havel would fulfill the requirements. As a longtime friend, artist, and fellow political worker, Kriseova is well qualified to write about Havel's life. Her attitude towards him encompasses both familiarity and reverence. Kriseova...
Both sides of Havel's family were prominent and aristocratic figures in Czechoslovakia's Old Regime. Such a history only intensified the communist government's discrimination against Vaclav, even in his youth. The Havel family history is truly interesting, but Kriseova devotes too much energy to relaying stories about Vaclav's parents and grandparents. Likewise, her account of Vaclav's own youth tends towards the chatty and overly anecdotal. To be fair, many of these tidbits are surprising and intriguing, especially those about the beginnings of Havel's involvement with Prague underground literary circles...
...Havel is a writer first, and has always considered himself such. While still very young he became well known in Prague avant garde theatre. For Havel, absurdist theater presents the individual's life and place within society in modern times. It also provides the framework in which to realize the loss of meaning within society. All of Havel's plays are concerned with the quest for truth and the destruction of personal responsibility. Havel's major theme, in his writings as in his life, is the negation of value and the moral imperative for action by each individual. These...
...Prague Spring" in 1968, a short period of relative freedom which was abruptly ended by the Soviet invasion, set Havel's political career in motion. The significance of this period in recent Czech history is equalled only by the "Velvet Revolution" of 1989, during which Havel himself assumed the presidency. Kriseova explains how the oppressiveness of the 1950s had suffocated the peoples' voices of opposition. "After a shock, society comes to its senses slowly, one person at a time." Havel entered into an arena which would become increasingly political and further from the artistic circles where he had previously been...
Because of his involvement with Charter 77, which questioned the mechanisms of government control, Havel spent most of his time either in prison or under house arrest. His plays continued to win acclaim abroad although they were banned in Czechoslovakia. Kriseova documents each interrogation, trial and prison term and their effects on the government's hold on the people as well as on Havel's development as a spokesperson for his people. Here, Kriseova's narrative combines her own experiences, the experiences of other people in their political circles, and descriptions of Havel's actions and writings. At times...