Abstract
Sidonia Dedina’s Books on Edvard BenešThis article deals with two non-fiction books authored by writer and journalist Sidonia Dedina. It examines these two books critically in the context of contemporary contentious issues in Czech-German relations.
First, the article discusses a number of Dedina’s factual errors. Second, it provides an analysis of the discourse strategies employed for demonizing the historical figure of Edvard Beneš.
The article draws analogies with the tendentious political discourse of certain Sudeten German organizations while exploring different reception of the concerned publications. It shows that the impact of Dedina’s books on the discourse dealing with historic traumas in the Czech-German relations is very negligible.
The reason lies in the fact that the outbreak of extensive research of a wide range of themes in Czech-German relations after 1989 has reduced opportunities for a biased treatment of historical materials.