The prose writer and poet Eva Bernardinová, maiden name Raimová, was born on the 4th of November 1931 in Prague, where she studied at the Faculty of Arts (Czech department – literary science) and in 1956 received her doctorate of philosophy. After a short spell working on the literary editorial board of Czech Radio in Prague she moved with her husband to Solenice, where he was working on the construction of the Orlík dam. This area has been a long-standing source of inspiration in her literary work.
In 1982 she returned to Prague and worked as an editor for the magazine Tvorba and the literary supplement Kmen, after which she was employed by the Museum of Czech Literature. She worked with schools for the blind and at the beginning of the 1990s helped to set up the Book-Handicap project.
Bernardinová made her debut at the end of the 1960s with her lyrical poetry, but she did not attract the attention of readers and critics until the publication of her two-part novel for children, Kluci, holky a Stodůlky [Boys, Girls and Barns] (1st part 1975, 2nd part 1978). The title itself reflects a collective of child heroes which captures their universe in general terms and is situated in a Czech village in the 1970s. The main protagonists – the siblings Honza and Anička Voříšek and their parents – represent sociologically generalised types which corresponded to the ideals of the time. A section of their everyday life unfolds in a chronicle of epic composition without a central epic finale. Bernardinová impressed with her ability to vividly describe a child’s world, while her use of a personal narrative position also naturally integrated the adults’ overview. Her novel was included in the IBBY’s Honour List. The author returned to village life again in her book about the trials and tribulations of setting up a water-sports club, Děti na vodě [Children on the Water] (1989). In the early 1990s Bernardinová began work on a five-part series for girls about a contemporary village girl (Blanka, obyčejná holka, [Blanka, Ordinary Girl] 1993; Blanko, usmívej se [Blanka, Smile], 1994; Blanko, představ si [Blanka, Imagine], 1995; Ahoj, Blanko! [Hi, Blanka] 1998; Blanka a Jirka [Blanka and Jirka], 2003). She attempted to create a concise version of a girl’s life from the beginnings of puberty through to adulthood. The wide time span of the story allowed her to introduce a range of themes which up until then had been taboo in children’s literature: sex education, the mentally handicapped, religion, and in the final parts there were attempts to interpret historical events and the contemporary political situation. Bernardinová discusses these themes openly; however, her intellectual and artistic approaches are contentious. In her transparent and specifically chosen settings she offers simplified statements, whilst the artistic deficiencies are evident in the author’s language, which directly mixes a trivial style of literature with an attempt at poetic expression. The author managed to avoid superficiality and schematism in her children’s novel Ahoj, bráško [Hi, Brother] (2004). It comes directly from her own experiences of working with disabled people and describes the difficult situation of a family which has to come to terms with the traumatic fact that their long-awaited second child has been born blind. Here the author managed to combine education with experience and reached beyond the bounds of a children’s book. The marked shift towards so-called educational literature, which in children’s writing focuses on presenting serious social issues with the aim of offering a way to solve them, is in accordance with the author’s own credo of “being a useful writer”.
