Between 'Creators and Bearers of the Czech National Myth' and an 'Academic Suicide': Czech Biography in the Twenty-First Century
2020
Abstract
In my contribution I offer an illustrative account of the current state of biography in the Czech Republic - in both academia and the public sphere. I will add to an ongoing debate about the roots of biography and of national and cultural traditions.
Most existing works in this vein focus on Western countries that have enjoyed continual freedom in the pursuit of historical research. My aim here is to capture the essence of the situation in a country which experienced two totalitarian regimes during the twentieth century and to explore how its experience may have affected the historical research at the heart of Czech biography.