Václav Havel Criticism
Václav Havel's dramatic works and political activism have cemented his status as an influential and multifaceted figure in both literature and global politics. Born in Prague in 1936 to a wealthy family, Havel's exposure to the oppressive regimes of Nazi and Stalinist rule profoundly shaped his worldview. Despite educational barriers imposed by the Communist regime, he emerged as a leading voice of dissent through his plays, which are characterized by their absurdist elements and incisive critique of bureaucratic absurdity and ideological conformity. Havel's early works, such as The Memorandum and The Garden Party, blend psychological, metaphysical, and social themes to reflect his critical stance on the dehumanizing effects of totalitarianism, as highlighted by critics Phyllis Carey and Veronika Ambros.
Within the Theater on the Balustrade in Prague, Havel's plays found a space to flourish despite the political climate, gaining universal resonance as they dissected the absurdities of modern bureaucratic life. His work is often compared to Kafkaesque themes and the black humor of Hašek, as noted by Martin Esslin. These influences helped Havel craft poignant social commentaries that extend beyond their Czechoslovakian contexts, drawing attention from critics such as Jan Grossman and Paul I. Trensky.
Despite the political risks, including censorship and imprisonment, Havel's reputation grew internationally. His dissident activities culminated in the co-founding of Charter 77, which led to his arrest in 1979 for subversive activities. However, the ban on his plays within Czechoslovakia only amplified his voice globally, with figures like Samuel Beckett paying tribute through works like Catastrophe for Václav Havel. His focus on the absurdity of language and societal conformity continues to resonate, as explored by Marketa Goetz-Stankiewicz.
Havel's writings extend beyond the stage into political essays, with works like Open Letters and Summer Meditations offering profound commentary on his vision for a democratic and humane society. His political career, marked by his election as President of Czechoslovakia in 1989 and subsequently the Czech Republic, demonstrated his commitment to these ideals in practice. As George F. Kennan notes, Havel's courage and philosophical insights remain influential, underscoring his enduring legacy in both literature and politics.
Contents
- Principal Works
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Havel, Václav (Vol. 123)
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One Can Stand Up to Lies
(summary)
In the following review, Howe offers positive assessment of Open Letters. "We turn to Havel," Howe writes, "not for theoretical innovation but for the consolidation of truth."
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Fictional World and Dramatic Text: Václav Havel's Descent and Ascent
(summary)
In the following essay, Ambros examines the interplay of fictional constructs, representations of reality, and dialogue in The Garden Party.
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Contemporary World Drama 101: Václav Havel
(summary)
In the following essay, Carey provides an overview of Havel's literary career, major works, and critical reception.
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Delirious Subjectivity: Four Scenes from Havel
(summary)
In the following essay, Quinn explores delirium, namely in the form of misunderstanding and confusion, in Havel's dramatic works. According to Quinn, Havel typically incorporates elements of delirium to evoke irony and satire.
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Living Lies: Václav Havel's Drama
(summary)
In the following essay, Carey provides an overview of Havel's creative periods and major dramatic works.
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A review of The Vanek Plays and Living in Truth
(summary)
In the following review, Thomas offers positive assessment of Living in Truth and The Vanek Plays. According to Thomas, Havel's dramatic works "are more complex, darker studies of the human spirit than the Czech tradition of 'humanist' criticism would suppose."
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Keeping the Faith
(summary)
In the following review, Kennan offers favorable assessment of Summer Meditations, praising Havel's courage to "offer to the public so unsparingly an exposure of what one can only call his political and personal philosophy."
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Václav Havel: The Once and Future Playwright
(summary)
In the following essay, Skloot considers the literary accomplishment of Havel's drama in relation to the works of Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard, Eugene Ionesco, and Samuel Beckett.
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The Poet as President
(summary)
In the following review, Knoll offers favorable assessment of Open Letters, Summer Meditations, and Living in Truth. Knoll praises Havel's "literate, profound, and humane essays."
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Time, Identity and Being: The World of Václav Havel
(summary)
In the following essay, Majer examines the influence of totalitarian oppression and imprisonment on Havel's existentialist concept of time, individual identity, and the possibility of meaning in his dramatic works.
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Female Victims and the Male Protagonist in Václav Havel's Drama
(summary)
In the following essay, Meche discusses the role of subordinate or victimized women in Havel's drama as a symbolic foil for deficient male protagonists.
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Interpreting Václav Havel
(summary)
In the following essay, Capps examines Havel's artistic and philosophical development in the context of Czechoslovakian intellectual tradition and contemporary politics.
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Philosopher President
(summary)
In the following review, Elshtain offers a positive evaluation of The Art of the Impossible.
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One Can Stand Up to Lies
(summary)
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Havel, Václav (Vol. 25)
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A Preface to Havel
(summary)
In the following essay, Jan Grossman explores Václav Havel's dramatic works, particularly The Garden Party and The Memorandum, highlighting Havel's unique method of depicting the mechanization of humanity and the complex dialogue between stage and audience, which leads to profound psychological and existential themes.
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Václav Havel and the Language of the Absurd
(summary)
In the following essay, Paul I. Trensky critiques Václav Havel's play The Garden Party as a profound examination of societal mechanization and the absurdity of language, while highlighting its satirical portrayal of bureaucratic conformity and the dehumanizing effects of ideological opportunism within Czechoslovak society.
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A Czech Absurdist: Vaclav Havel
(summary)
In the following essay, Martin Esslin examines Václav Havel's plays, highlighting their blend of political satire, absurdity, and philosophical themes, while drawing parallels to Kafka and Hašek in exploring the profound metaphysical and existential contradictions of bureaucratic absurdity and language.
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Parallels and Proselytes
(summary)
In the following essay, Martin Esslin explores the intricate satirical layers in Václav Havel's plays, highlighting their political, bureaucratic, and existential themes, with a focus on linguistic innovation and the universal struggle for power and recognition as depicted in The Memorandum and The Garden Party.
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Mechanized Minds
(summary)
The critic explores how Havel's play The Increased Difficulty of Concentration critiques rationalist approaches to human behavior, highlighting themes of alienation and identity through a protagonist whose personal failings and a fragmented narrative reveal the inadequacy of sociological interpretations.
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Post-War Drama in Czechoslovakia: 'The Increased Difficulty of Concentration'
(summary)
In the following essay, Jarka M. Burian analyzes Václav Havel's play "The Increased Difficulty of Concentration," emphasizing its human focus and satirical take on scientific analysis, while highlighting its cubistic structure and the theme of fragmented human consciousness.
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Václav Havel: Between the Theatre of the Absurd and Engaged Theatre
(summary)
In the following essay, Walter Schamschula explores Václav Havel's use of absurd defamiliarization in his plays, emphasizing the destruction of traditional dramatic structures and the interplay of existential and satirical elements, while highlighting Havel's innovative techniques, such as cyclical structures and gags, to critique social systems and existential realities.
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Václav Havel
(summary)
In the following essay, Marketa Goetz-Stankiewicz analyzes Václav Havel's plays, arguing that they explore the mechanizing power of language and its role in shaping human identity and societal systems, reflecting the absurdity and existential dilemmas inherent in political power struggles and the conformity of individuals to systems.
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Václav Havel: A Writer of Today's Season
(summary)
In the following essay, Marketa Goetz-Stankiewicz examines Václav Havel's theatrical works, highlighting his exploration of language as a tool of power and his portrayal of the tension between the individual and society, while also emphasizing the relevance of his plays to both Eastern and Western audiences in understanding modern ethical dilemmas.
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Catastrophe
(summary)
In the following essay, Beckett uses a theatrical setting in his play "Catastrophe" to explore themes of authority, artistic expression, and political oppression, ultimately critiquing the ways in which art can be manipulated by power, especially in contexts relevant to Václav Havel's experiences.
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A Preface to Havel
(summary)
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Havel, Václav
- Author Commentary
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Overviews And General Studies
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Living in Lies: Václav Havel's Drama
(summary)
Carey places Havel's drama in three major phases: "the early absurdist comedies; the Vaněk morality plays; and the psychological-prison plays."
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Shall We Dance?: Reflections on Václav Havel's Plays
(summary)
In the essay below, Goetz-Stankiewicz traces the dance metaphor through Havel's plays.
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Václav Havel: The Once and Future Playwright
(summary)
In this essay, which was written in the interim between Havel's terms as President of Czechoslovakia and of the Czech Republic, Skloot explores the political nature of Havel's plays.
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Living in Lies: Václav Havel's Drama
(summary)
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The Memorandum
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A Review of The Memorandum
(summary)
In the following evaluation of a recent British production of The Memorandum, Kingston praises the play but finds its absurdist elements dated.
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The Memorandum
(summary)
In this review, Billington admires the irony in The Memorandum as well as the play's "brutally logical satire on the use of language to enforce conformity."
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The Memorandum
(summary)
Hemmings argues that the subject matter of The Memorandum is still current: "the use of language or jargon to obscure meaning has by no means vanished," she maintains. The play tackles the dilemma of devalued language in a totalitarian regime, focusing on a monolithic office where a new language is introduced to improve communication, but ultimately fails due to its complexity and the unintended consequences of its use.
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The Memorandum
(summary)
In the following, Taylor offers a favorable assessment of The Memorandum.
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The Memorandum
(summary)
Below, Hughes-Hallett characterizes the mood of The Memorandum as one of 'weary, witty disenchantment.' Vaclav Havel's The Memorandum is set in the kind of office in which not only the people but even the notebooks are in danger of having their official existence denied if they lack the proper documents. The office routine is time-wasting and somewhat ludicrous but functions fairly smoothly until the deputy managing director introduces Ptydepe, a synthetic language designed to ensure the absolute precision of official memoranda by eliminating all the unnecessary and confusing emotional overtones of natural language. The plot is circular, revealing both the funny and the sinister side of excessive bureaucracy, with the play taking the form of a Kafkaesque political allegory.
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A Review of The Memorandum
(summary)
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A Private View ("The VaněK Plays")
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Farcical Worlds
(summary)
When the three Vaněk plays were staged off-Broadway in 1983, they were given the collective title A Private View. In the following review of that presentation, Simon declares 'Protest' the best of the pieces.
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Voice from Abroad
(summary)
The following is a highly favorable assessment of the off-Broadway production of A Private View. Oliver asserts: "The performance of these plays, in the impeccable translation of Vera Blackwell, is itself impeccable." A Private View, at the Public, is a program of three brief one-act satires by the brave dissident Czech dramatist Vaclav Havel. Each of them is an encounter centering on a character called Vanek, who is plainly based upon the author himself. The first two plays are set in 1975, shortly before Havel was sent to prison for protesting to the government on behalf of human rights; the third was written in 1978, shortly after his release, when he was employed in a brewery, pushing empty barrels around.
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Dramas in Two Worlds
(summary)
In this review of A Private View, Sauvage praises 'Interview' and 'Protest' but severely censures 'Private View,' stating: 'The play is bad, and made worse by [director Lee] Grant's misdirection and [actress Concetta] Tornei's physical miscasting' as Vera.
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Private Views, Public Vistas
(summary)
In the evaluation below of A Private View, Brustein argues that Havel has made Vaněk the spokesman for his own views, and in so doing has created for himself an insoluble problem: how to dramatize the cowardice of others and contrast it with your own heroism, without appearing impossibly self-righteous.
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Where Theater Matters
(summary)
In this review of A Private View, Hughes offers a moderately favorable assessment of the play.
- A Private View ("The VaněK Plays")
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Farcical Worlds
(summary)
- Further Reading