Eduard Petrů

The First Czech Exile

Not only readers, but also literary historians usually associate Czech exile literature with the second half of the twentieth century. This conception is certainly accurate; however, we should not forget that the phenomenon of exile in Czech literature is much older, and that we will soon commemorate the four-hundredth anniversary of the first exodus of Czech authors from their land – the mass exile after the defeat of the Estates’ rebellion in 1620.