READING IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA 1989-1991 - A SURVEY OF THE PUBLICS RECEPTION OF WORKS OF FICTION

Reading in Czechoslovakia under Communism did not conform to the offic ial line maintaining that citizens were primarily interested in seriou s political works. On the contrary, surveys revealed that light fictio n and works from the West were the books with the highest public libra ry circulation. The long period of spiritual stagnation led to the deg radation of critical ability, one result of which was that some sophis ticated and controversial Western works such as John Irving's The Worl d According to Garp were acceptable to Communist authorities because t hey were mistakenly deemed ''light literature''. In the years immediat ely following the demise of Communism, Czech public library users did not show a radical change in their choice of titles, but the author po ints out that the recently improved distribution and availability of b oth ''high'' and ''low'' literature may have altered habits considerab ly in the period since the survey was done.