Matěj Klíma

The monograph deals with the reception of Ladislav Klíma’s work and personality in Czech culture. It is divided into four sections. In the first one we focus on the reactions to his work during his lifetime. In addition to the reflection on the plays and published books, we also follow small magazine polemics and partially explain the biographical background of published books. In the second section we examine the changes in the perception of Klíma after his death in 1928 until 1948. We present reviews of posthumously published books, obituaries and key interpretations of Klíma’s thought. We examine the relations of avant-garde artists to Klíma and the personalities who significantly influenced the fate of his work. The third part presents reflections on Klíma’s work after the communist coup in 1948 until the revolution in 1989. We look at the efforts to eradicate the author’s name from cultural consciousness, marxist interpretations of his thought, the prominent authors of Czech literature who were influenced by him, interpretations from the 1960s, and the reception of his work in the alternative culture in the 1970s and 1980s. In the final section, we examine the situation of Klíma’s reception after 1989, disputes over the approach to publishing Klíma’s texts, selected interpretations and adaptations of his works.