engleski

Czech humour as timeless anti-ideological propaganda

World wars have left an indelible trace while they lasted as well as in times after them. In Czech culture and literature one of the common ways of adapting to political regime changes is using humour in literary works. The paper focuses on three novels by famous Czech novelists: The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek, I Served the King of Englandby Bohumil Hrabal and The Jokeby Milan Kundera. By using humour as dominant literarydiscourse, the authors created marginalised characters, (anti)heroes who, despite living at different times, disarm the war. Nuanced irony, black humour, sarcasm and grotesque reveal the true face of wars and restraints of (post)war ideologies – Austrian imperialism, Nazism and socialism by treating them as absurd. Timelessness of pacifism which these works promote makes these books appealing to readers even nowadays.

Czech literature, ideology, humour, anti-hero, Hašek, Hrabal, Kundera

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