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Forty years after

The Prague Writers' Festival reconsiders the '60s
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By Frank Kuznik
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
May 28th, 2008 issue

Prague Writers' Festival


When: June 1-5
Where: Divadlo Minor, Municipal Library, Obecní dům, American Center
Tickets: 70-300 Kč, available at Divadlo Minor
For individual events, see the Calendar listings; for a complete schedule, check
www.pwf.cz

McClure
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Atwood
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Vaculík
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Gibson
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CLOSE ENCOUNTERS



Meet the authors at the following book signings, all at Big Ben (Malá Štupartská 5, Prague 1) unless otherwise noted.

May 31
2 p.m. Michael McClure
Elena Schwarz

3 p.m. Homero Aridjis
Ivan Klíma
Günter Kunert

June 1
2 p.m. Margaret Atwood
Graeme Gibson

3 p.m. Paul Auster
Katerina Aghelaki-
Rooke

June 2
Noon Margaret Atwood
(Daniel Bookshop, Národní 38)

1 p.m. Jiři Gruša
Arnošt Lustig
Gary Younge

June 3
3 p.m. Paul Auster (Academia Bookshop, Vaclávské nám. 34)

June 4
2 p.m. Tariq Ali
Slavenka Drakulić
Siri Hustvedt

It was 40 years ago today, Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play …
No, wait, that was 1967, the summer of love, when the Beatles were the pop kings of the world. 1968 was a different deal, a time of revolution and turmoil, of people fighting in the streets. Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. were gunned down in the United States, students occupied the Sorbonne in France and Warsaw Pact tanks rolled into Prague.
It was a lot to digest at one time, and four decades later it still seems overwhelming. But the intervening years should lend some insight and perspective, and what better place to ponder it all than the 18th annual Prague Writers’ Festival?
“1968 was a moment of recognition, when people throughout the world realized what needed to be changed in society,” says PWF President Michael March. “It was a rebellion against oppressive bureaucracies from all points along the political spectrum. We want to look back and consider things that were lost and things never gained.”
That in itself is a flash point of departure, as the legacy of the ’60s is still a matter of some controversy. Was it a lot of noise and tumult that, in the end, didn’t really accomplish anything? Were the promises of political and sexual freedom all empty? Or is it possible to trace the advances in, for example, racial equality and women’s rights back to the ideological sea change of the ’60s?
No doubt all these matters and many more will arise in the five lively days of readings and discussions the festival has scheduled this year. Along with attracting the usual cadre of big literary names, March has done a great job of assembling writers who can consider the era from a broad range of geographical vantage points.
The opening night (June 1) features a stellar cross-cultural panel: the remarkable Canadian author Margaret Atwood, American novelist Paul Auster and beat poet and playwright Michael McClure, and Czech poet and essayist Petr Král. Their open-ended discussion on 1968 will be sandwiched between ceremonial opening remarks and a Freedom of Expression award presentation to Russian poet and political activist Natalia Gorbanevskaya.
Among other readings and talks the following day, political analyst Jiří Pehe will moderate an afternoon recap of the world-shaking events in 1968 Czechoslovakia by Czech authors Ludvík Vaculík, Ivan Klíma, Arnošt Lustig, Antonín J. Liehm and Jiří Gruša. On June 3, the year gets a going-over by Atwood and fellow Canadian novelist Graeme Gibson, Mexican poet Homero Aridjis, and Greek writers Dimistri Nollas and Katerian Arghelaki-Rooke, with British columnist and writer Gary Younge moderating.
Russia is the focus of the June 4 panel discussion on 1968, which features Russian writers Elena Schwarz and Igor Pomerantsev, German literary star Günter Kunert, Croatian novelist Slavenka Drakulić and Czech journalist Antonín J. Liehm, with Pakistani writer Tariq Ali moderating. And, on the final day, Auster and McClure will have a more intimate conversation at the American Center, with Auster, Král and Nollas anchoring an evening panel.
This is just the surface of the festival, which includes a full slate of additional discussions and individual readings, along with a screening of Auster’s new film, The Inner Life of Martin Frost. And it’s all unbelievably cheap, with tickets for most events priced at 70–150 Kč ($4.50–9.50).
“These are all conversations between thinkers, and at some point there’s always a magic quality, an alchemy that occurs,” says March. That kind of intellectual stimulation doesn’t come along very often, much less in English, and packed into one week. Whatever your connection to the ’60s, it should be a real high.

Frank Kuznik can be reached at fkuznik@praguepost.com


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