Jiří Trávníček

Reading Bohemia

Trans. Melvyn Clarke
Reading Bohemia Reading Bohemia
Akropolis, 2015, 96 pp
Language: English
Essay, Literary criticism, Other

The book is based on a presentation of the main data from three statistical representative readership surveys conducted by the Institute of the Czech Literature (the Czech Academy of Sciences) and the National Library of the Czech Republic in 2007, 2010, and 2013. Czech readership culture is here monitored against a background of relevant information on the Czech Republic as a whole (e.g. demography, culture, education and the economy). However, the main section of this book is aimed at a wide spectrum of specific activities such as reading, digital reading, public library attendance, buying and acquiring books, and mass media activities. All these activities are interpreted by putting them into relevant contexts; at the same time, quantitative data are enlarged by qualitative findings. The book also contains a chapter comparing Czech reading culture with the situation abroad. Published in cooperation with the Institute of the Czech Literature.

Jiří Trávníček (born 1960), a literary scholar by education and profession, he is a Deputy Director at the Institute of the Czech Literature – the Czech Academy of Sciences (full-time job) as well as a professor at the Faculty of Arts – Masaryk University, Brno (part-time job). He is an author or co-author of eight monographs dealing with modern Czech and Central European literature, hermenutics and interpretation, reading culture, and the book market. In cooperation with the National Library, he has also organized three representative statistical readership surveys of the Czech adult population (2007, 2010, 2013). Additionally, he works as an editor and literary critic. E-mail contact: travnicek@ucl.cas.cz

Akropolis, 2015, 96 pp
Language: English