Gesture and Reality

In this collective monograph, an international team of historians specializing in literature, the visual arts, theatre, film, and music examines how art shaped public discourse in interwar Czechoslovakia. Through forty case studies, the authors uncover new connections and explore the intricate relationships between art and politics. The first volume addresses the concept of Czechoslovak statehood, the theme of national identities, and investigates the tensions between politics and everyday life in the newly established state as represented in contemporary art. The second volume focuses on the artistic gestures of the avant-garde responding to the changing world after the First World War, the social conditions in the new state, and visions of their solution. It also traces artistic responses to the consequences of the global economic crisis and the threat to European democracy.