KOREAN WAR NARRATIVES IN 1950S CZECHOSLOVAKIA

Abstract

The Korean War was a crucial event at the beginning of Czechoslovakian Cold War ideology and propaganda, when, in the duel between the two worlds, culture was involved. The present article focuses on the formative era of the Korean War narrative through Cold War fictions and nonfictions in 1950s Czechoslovakia. It presents the most influential books in the Czechoslovakia of the time: Han Hǔngsu’s Korea včera a dnes (Korea Yesterday and Today), the Soviet publication Viděli jsme Koreu (We Saw Korea), and the North Korean anthology of pamphlets Jak byla připravena válka v Koreji (How the Korean War was prepared). The article then analyses two anthologies of poetry written by the famous Soviet Korean poet Cho Kich’ŏn, the novel Sešit nalezený v Sunčchonu (The Notebook Found in Sunchŏn) by Roman Kim, and the booklet Čeští spisovatelé korejským dětem (Czech Writers to Korean Children). The conclusion summarises the ways in which the Korean War was depicted and the pivots of its narrative.

Keywords

• czechoslovakia
• korean war
• nonfiction
• fiction
• ideology
• propaganda
• narrative
• cho kich’ŏn
• roman kim