„Promise unkept“ Assessing strategies of Czech normalization criticism

Abstract

This article is to describe strategies of normalization criticism which were used to assess and include social novels dealing with political subjects in the canon of the new socialist literature. The analysis was based on the reviews written by the critics who had met the requirements of the normalization regime and reflected on the works of art in the official periodicals. The described strategies suggest what compromise solutions the critics mostly preferred and what methods they used to emphasize the positives and shroud negatives of the reviewed works of art, which were usually of very poor quality, and what set expressions and argumentation they employed to reconcile the expectations and tasks with the outcomes of the contemporary politically progressive production.

Keywords

• : literary criticism
• ideology
• normalization
• social novel