Yareah Magazine

 Charles Kinney, Jr.

A + B = C
(A Passive Resistant Nature +  Bits of Pragmatic Acceptance = Czech Character)

 At first glance, the Czech people are not known for their rambunctious disregard of authority.  Relegation to backwater status in the Austro-Hungarian empire, capitulation to the Nazi's and generally docile subservience to the Russian Soviet sphere of influence, the Czechs spent much of the 20th century quietly under the thumb of someone outside their borders.  Jaroslav Hašek's The Good Soldier Švejk represents not only the first use of the picaresque (lower-class antihero using his wits to exist in a corrupt society) style in central Europe, but a major component of the character of the Czech people.  Švejk, the anti-hero, fumbles through the archaic system that was the last years of the Austro-Hungarian empire.  Bumbling idiot, or brilliant survivor?  Such a bold assertion of Czech character belies Czech attempts to assert themselves against much larger foes.

 Švejk, like the Czech Republic and Czechoslovakia before it, gets into predicaments but by sheer determination (or inane luck?), somehow manages to get out of them.  Švejk may be central European's everyday little man, but it's generally agreed that he's not an idiot.  Like Czech passive resistance, he registers disapproval but accepts reality.  Informed about the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Švejk replies, “Which Ferdinand, Mrs. Muller?  I know two.”  However, when being questioned about his worthiness for conscription, Švejk, knowing he cannot escape military service, acquiesces without hesitation, “Long live our emperor, Franz Joseph 1, gentlemen.”

 1918 – 1938 marked the Czechoslovakian First Republic, followed by Nazi occupation.  Czechoslovakia was dismembered but resisted, personified in the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich.  Surviving, and being reborn after WWII, Czechoslovakia fell under Russian dominance by 1948.  Like Švejk, Communist-era Czechoslovakia lived in a gray world, registering compliance in public but resistance when backs were turned.  In 1968, Czechoslovakia enjoyed a brief reprise in the “Prague Spring” under Alexander Dubček, which resulted in the tragedies of the immolation of Jan Palach and ruthless suppression by Warsaw Pact forces. 

 Somehow, Švejk, like Czechoslovakia, manages to survive, through wits, irony and paradoxical humor.  The subversive streak, which appears to be idiocy, emanates in the ridiculous nature of the situations in which Švejk finds himself.  Czechoslovakia broke free of Soviet domination in the Velvet Revolution of 1989, only to break apart for inane political reasons in the Velvet Divorce of 1993.  Švejk would have completely understood the futility of trying to hold the two parts together.  Interrogator to Švejk, “Do you believe in the end of the world?”  Švejk replies, “I'd have to see that end first.” 

Read more:

http://www.yareah.com/magazine/index.php/literature-literatura/336-queer-eye-for-the-vampire-guy      

Bio: 

Charles Kinney, Jr. http://www.charleskinney.blogspot.com/ is currently based in Norway, and has written for publications in Greenland, Denmark, the United States and the United Kingdom. He has taught and lectured at universities and educational institutions around the world. He's frequently appeared on Greenlandic TV http://charleskinney.blogspot.com/2009/03/singing-with-puppets-on-greenlandic-tv.html and recently completed a two-year posting as the US State Department's English Language Fellow to Greenland.