Abstract
Jiří Voskovec, Vaclav Černý, Čestmír Císař, Zdeněk Troška - four well-known names conjoined by French "maturita". But this basic fact is often overlaid with ambiguity and perhaps myth.
The book Dijon Phenomenon aims to deconstruct myths and to present the first, comprehensive and critical history of the Czech (Czechoslovak) sections at French secondary schools. This unparalleled tradition of the unique educational institution is studied in three mutually interconnected planes.
First of all, in terms of cultural and political relations between the Czechoslovak (Czech and Slovak) Republic and France, for almost a hundred years of diplomatic relations. The second place is followed by transformations of their own studies, focusing to the functioning of the French Lyceum and the methods and concepts of teaching.
The last analyzed level, and for many reasons the most important, is the "collective biography" of former students and students during the turbulent 20th century. Because, the sections were always closed in years of limited freedom (1940-1945, 1948-1965, 1974-1989), the "Dijon Phenomenon" is a seismograph of the Czech attachment to the West and the function of "Western" education in Czech society.