Literature
Besides Czech, which other languages are present in Czech literature?
Czech Republic
Czech literature is the literature written by Czechs, mostly in the Czech language, although other languages like Old Church Slavonic, Latin or German have been also used, especially in the past. Non-Czech inhabitants of the Czech lands who had written in German and other languages, such as Franz Kafka, are usually excluded from the corpus of Czech literature, regardless of their own national self-identification. Czech literature is divided into several main time periods: the Middle Ages; the Hussite period; the years of re-Catholicization and the baroque; the Enlightenment and Czech reawakening in the 19th century; the avantgarde of the interwar period; the years under Communism and the Prague Spring; and the literature of the post-Communist Czech Republic. Czech literature and culture played a major role on at least two occasions, when Czechs lived under oppression and political activity was suppressed. On both of these occasions, in the early 19th century and then again in the 1960s, the Czechs used their cultural and literary effort to strive for political freedom, establishing a confident, politically aware nation. A famous antiwar comedy novel "The Good Soldier Švejk" by Jaroslav Hašek is the most translated Czech book in history. It was depicted by Karel Steklý in two color films "The Good Soldier Schweik" in 1956 and 1957.