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The Unbearable Lightness of Being: Between the Book and the Movie
By Patricija Fašalek If you try and search Milan Kundera in relation to America in Google, the same paragraph repeats itself in different articles. What originates in writings of New York Times and seems to be widely agreed upon: “In the 1980’s, Milan Kundera has done for his native Czechoslovakia what Gabriel Garcia Marquez did for Latin…
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Czech-Moravian Heritage in Texas
By Clinton Machann Before retiring as a professor of English at Texas A&M University in 2017, my principal academic interest was in the field of nineteenth-century British literature and culture, but my interest in the history of Czech – primarily Moravian – immigration to Texas and the Czech-Moravian community there is longstanding. It goes back…
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Alma Mater: University Experiences in the USA and Czech Republic
By Colleen Kiefer Maher When traveling or comparing cultures, it is the big differences that always get the attention. You might see pictures of the Charles Bridge or Prague Castle or practice nailing those tricky Czech letters. Of course, those are part of experiencing of the Czech Republic, but they are not all of it.…
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Contextualizing the Czech-American Relationship in the Light of NATO and Military Partnership: Creation, Evolution, and Cooperation
By Markéta Šonková A shared appreciation of democratic ideals and human rights stood for one of the cornerstones of the foreign policies of the former Czechoslovakia and the U.S. as well as an ideological link between the two countries. At least this is what we learn when tracing the steps of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and…
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The Cinematic American Dream: The Life and Films of Miloš Forman
by Michaela Medveďová Every time the United States attempts to make a rank of their best motion picture in the history of the silver screen, apart from classics such as Casablanca (1942), The Godfather (1972), The Shawshank Redemption (1994), or Forrest Gump (1994), there is another movie they always consider for one of the top…
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T.G Masaryk and the United States 1878-1918
by Anna Herran “I cherished the hope that in America, and with President Wilson particularly, good fortune would attend me. My personal and family ties with America were close. I had been there repeatedly, from 1878 onwards; and American democracy and the development of American civilization had aroused my lively interest from the beginning of…
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The Heavier the Borscht, the Lighter the Burden: Inaccuracies in Czech Representation on American Screens
By Tereza Walsbergerová The United States is above all a country of immigrants, which is why it is desirable for American producers and filmmakers to include immigrant and foreign narratives in their stories. While the representation of the larger foreign-born populations in the US (e.g. Mexican, Chinese or Indian) has been constantly improving due to…
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The Visiting Presidents
by Patrícia Iliašová Since 1918 until today, many presidents of Czechoslovakia (and subsequently Czech Republic) travelled to the United States or received the American presidents in Prague. This article brings an overview of the most significant visits and bonds established between the presidents of these two countries over the one hundred years of the existence…
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American and Czech Relations – Beyond Politics
By Nika Göthová Why do Americans come and study in the Czech Republic? How do they get here and what happens once they are here? How long does it take to get a visa and how do they feel about the people of central Europe? What reactions do inhabitants of Brno have about the Americans?…