Jan Trefulka (15 May 1929 – 22 November 2012) was a Czech writer, translator, literary critic and publicist.

Biography

Trefulka was born in Brno,

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

, where he also died. He attended school with

Milan Kundera Milan Kundera ( ; ; 1 April 1929 – 11 July 2023) was a Czech and French novelist. Kundera went into exile in France in 1975, acquiring citizenship in 1981. His Czechoslovak citizenship was revoked in 1979, but he was granted Czech citizenship ...

and the pair remained lifelong friends. Critical of the

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

regime, in 1950 he was expelled from the Czechoslovakian Communist Party for "anti-party activities" along with Kundera. At the same time he was expelled from

Charles University Charles University (CUNI; , UK; ; ), or historically as the University of Prague (), is the largest university in the Czech Republic. It is one of the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest universities in the world in conti ...

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

where he was studying

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

and

aesthetics Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste (sociology), taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Ph ...

. Trefulka wrote about his run-in with the communist party in his first novella ''Pršelo jim štestí'' (Happiness Rained on Them,

1962 The year saw the Cuban Missile Crisis, which is often considered the closest the world came to a Nuclear warfare, nuclear confrontation during the Cold War. Events January * January 1 – Samoa, Western Samoa becomes independent from Ne ...

). Trefulka was involved with Samizdat - the publishing and distributing of censored literature under communist rule, and was a signatory of

Charter 77 Charter 77 (''Charta 77'' in Czech language, Czech and Slovak language, Slovak) was an informal civic initiative in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic from 1976 to 1992, named after the document Charter 77 from January 1977. Founding members ...

. Trefulka found it difficult to find work in the country after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. He spent time unemployed and working as a manual labourer. After the

Velvet Revolution The Velvet Revolution () or Gentle Revolution () was a non-violent transition of power in what was then Czechoslovakia, occurring from 17 November to 28 November 1989. Popular demonstrations against the one-party government of the Communist Pa ...

and the downfall of the communist regime in 1989, he became more active in public life, becoming president of the Association of Moravian-Silesian Writers and a member of the first Czech Television Council.

List of works

* ''Happiness Rained on Them'' (''Pršelo jim štěstí'') (1962) * ''Praise Only for the Fools'' (''O bláznech jen dobré'') (1973) * ''The Criminal Uprising'' (''Zločin pozdvižen'') (1978) * ''Seduced and Betrayed'' (''Svedený a opuštěný'') (1983) * ''A Fool's Reader'' (''Bláznova čítanka'') (1998) A collection of Trefulka's work published in Samizdat.

References

''A Handbook of Czech Prose Writing, 1940-2005'' B. R. Bradbrook on 'Google Books' website

translated 'Atlantis' website

translated 'Spisovatelé' website

Jan Trefulka at Czechoslovak book network Baila.net
1929 births 2012 deaths Charter 77 signatories Czech male writers Writers from Brno Charles University alumni {{CzechRepublic-writer-stub