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The Integrity of the Avant-Garde: Karel Teige and the Biography of an Ambition is the title of a book set for publication next month. Its author is US-born Peter Zusi, associate professor of Czech and Comparative Literature at the University of London. Zusi discusses his interest in Czech modernist prime mover Teige in a conversation that also takes in his own teaching work – and teenage years in a rock band with a future movie star.
Peter, you’re from New York – what led you to Czech?
“Cherchez la femme: My wife is Czech. I was in graduate school when we met. I was doing Comparative Literature, and primarily German Literature, but then when I was working on my dissertation we decided we would live in Prague, because it was possible.
“We figured events would take us back to the States afterwards. And then when I was there I just started poking around among certain authors who became interesting to me.
“I ended up including one chapter in my dissertation that was on Karel Tiege and the Czech avant-garde.
“Then when I finished the first job I got was in Czech literature and it has been, as they say, all history from there.”
See the rest here.
Author: Ian Willoughby