Drama for the microphone

It is sometimes stated in professional literature that during the Protectorate, the radio broadcasts mostly featured productions of German plays. However, the reality is the opposite. During the occupation, the radio created what is probably the largest " laboratory" for so-called verbal creation to date, within which many original Czech plays with characteristic themes were created, which were soon also studied. The estimated number of original plays is at least three hundred, with the creators also using innovative radio techniques in many productions. The protectorate radio dramaturgy therefore not only encouraged authorial work, which it primarily sought to support national self-confidence, but also sought to develop dramatic radio discourse. A similar autonomization situation – but based on material from non-dramatic literature – is described, for example, by Pierre Bourdieu.

Lenka Jungmannová' s monograph is dedicated to the autonomization process of the original Czech protectorate radio play. The first part of the thesis consists of a theoretical study that deals with the phenomena of radio play and production. The second, historiographical part is filled with analyses of the preserved original dramas, which are viewed in a broader literary context and structured according to genre specifics. The last part of the book focuses on the process of formation and existence of radio drama in a given medium, within the cultural and social conditions of the time. – Published in collaboration with Institute of Czech Literature of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, v. in. i.