Jan Trefulka
{{Infobox writer
| image =Jan trefulka.jpg
| name = Jan Trefulka
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| birth_date = {{Birth date|1929|5|15|df=y}}
| birth_place = Brno, Czechoslovakia
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2012|11|22|1929|5|15|df=y}}
| death_place = Brno, Czech Republic
| occupation = Writer
| nationality = Czech
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Jan Trefulka (15 May 1929 – 22 November 2012) was a Czech writer, translator, literary critic and publicist.
Biography
Trefulka was born in Brno, Czech Republic, where he also died.{{cite news|url=http://www.ceskenoviny.cz/news/zpravy/czech-writer-dissident-jan-trefulka-dies/869256|title=Czech writer, dissident Jan Trefulka dies|publisher=Czech News Agency|date=22 November 2012|accessdate=22 November 2012}} He attended school with Milan Kundera and the pair remained lifelong friends.
Critical of the communist regime, in 1950 he was expelled from the Czechoslovakian Communist Party for "anti-party activities" along with Kundera. At the same time he was expelled from Charles University in Prague where he was studying literature and aesthetics. Trefulka wrote about his run-in with the communist party in his first novella Pršelo jim štestí (Happiness Rained on Them, 1962). Trefulka was involved with Samizdat - the publishing and distributing of censored literature under communist rule, and was a signatory of Charter 77.
Trefulka found it difficult to find work in the country after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. He spent time unemployed and working as a manual labourer.
After the Velvet Revolution and the downfall of the communist regime in 1989, he became more active in public life, becoming president of the Association of Moravian-Silesian Writers and a member of the first Czech Television Council.
List of works
- Happiness Rained on Them (Pršelo jim štěstí) (1962)
- Praise Only for the Fools (O bláznech jen dobré) (1973)
- The Criminal Uprising (Zločin pozdvižen) (1978)
- Seduced and Betrayed (Svedený a opuštěný) (1983)
- A Fool's Reader (Bláznova čítanka) (1998) A collection of Trefulka's work published in Samizdat.
References
- [https://books.google.com/books?id=a52DF0aGtisC&pg=PA135 A Handbook of Czech Prose Writing, 1940-2005 B. R. Bradbrook on 'Google Books' website]
- [https://www-atlantis--brno-cz.translate.goog/inshop/autori/trefulka-jan/?_x_tr_sch=http&_x_tr_sl=cs&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en translated 'Atlantis' website]
- [https://www-spisovatele-cz.translate.goog/jan-trefulka?_x_tr_sl=cs&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en translated 'Spisovatelé' website]
- [http://baila.net/autor/31093696/jan-trefulka Jan Trefulka at Czechoslovak book network Baila.net] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130628175828/http://baila.net/autor/31093696/jan-trefulka |date=2013-06-28 }}
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Category:Charter 77 signatories
Category:Charles University alumni
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