COURAGE

gyűjtemények hálózata

Jan Lopatka (1940–1993) was a Czech literary critic and historian, and signatory of Charter 77. To mark a symposium about his life and work, which was organised by the literary magazine Revolver Revue in June 2016 in Prague, a 17-minutes long time-lapse documentary called “Jan Lopatka: Zaostření pozornosti” (“Jan Lopatka: Focusing attention”), devoted to this important personality of Czech literary history, was created by Petr Kotyk and Bedřich Ludvík. In this film, edited by Bedřich Ludvík, recordings with Jan Lopatka made by Petr Kotyk in the 1990s as part of the Authentic project for the “Videotéka a fonotéka” (video and audio library) of the Literary Archive of the Museum of Czech Literature (LA PNP) were used. The film also covers Lopatka’s memories of the Czechoslovak samizdat magazine “Kritický sborník” (Critical Proceedings), which Lopatka edited during the second half of the 1980s, and his reflections on the meaning of the samizdat volumes.

The book provides easy access to the archival materials preserved in Alojzij Šuštar Collection, which are otherwise accessible only to a limited degree. It documents the struggle of Archbishop Šuštar to force the communist government to grant basic freedoms to Catholics, such as the right not to work on Christmas. It follows his activities in the process of Slovenia becoming an independent state. Therefore, the book is an unavoidable source for studying more recent Slovenian history.

The book Tartust Pariisi ja tagasi. Rännakutest, kunstist ja möödanikust (From Tartu to Paris and back. About journeys, art, and the past) consists of writings and poems by Indrek Hirv. Reproductions of works of art in his collection are also published in the book. It is even more important that the lives and fates of Hirv and his parents, as well as the lives of his parents’ friends, who were all artists, are described in this book. The book gives an insight into the views and spirit of a circle of artists who in one way or another opposed Soviet authority.