by the need to rebel, to act outside of the bounds of society — their work draws on the war generation (Group 42), and is often brutal, aggressive, and vulgar (Jáchym Topol, Petr Placák, Zuzana Brabcová); postmodernism also influenced literature as a whole (Jiří Kratochvil, Daniela Hodrová). The fall of communism in 1989 marked another break in Czech literature — plurality and freedom returned. The works of many of the illegal and exiled authors working under the communist regime were published for the first time (for instance Jan Křesadlo and Ivan Blatný) and many of them returned to public life and publishing. Although some critics would say that contemporary Czech literature (since 1989) is relatively marginalised in comparison with Czech film-making, writers such as Petr Šabach, Ivan Martin Jirous, Jáchym Topol, Miloš Urban, Patrik Ouředník, Petra Hůlová, Michal Viewegh and Kateřina Tučková are public figures and sell books in large numbers. Contemporary Czech poetry, in Petr Borkovec can boast a poet of European standing. Contemporary Czech authors Michal Ajvaz Jan Balabán Josef Formánek Ivan Martin Jirous Jiří Hájíček Emil Hakl Petra Hůlová Milan Kundera Patrik Ouředník Sylvie Richterová Jaroslav Rudiš Pavel Řezníček Petr Stančík Michal Šanda Jáchym Topol Miloš Urban Jaroslav Velinský Michal Viewegh Radka Denemarková Jaroslav Čejka (* 1943) Czech Literary Awards Jaroslav Seifert Prize Jiří Orten Award Magnesia Litera Prize See also Otto's encyclopedia Libri Prohibiti List of Glagolitic manuscripts Czech science fiction and fantasy Footnotes References Česká literatura od počátků k dnešku, by Jiří Holý, Jaroslava Janáčková, Jan Lehár, Alexandr Stich (Nakladatelství Lidové noviny, 2004) Holý, Jiří, Writers Under Siege: Czech Literature since 1945. Sussex Academic Press, 2007 Weiskopf, Franz Carl. Hundred towers: a Czechoslovak anthology of creative writing. New York : L.B. Fischer, 1945. External links -An overview, in English, of the history of Czech literature since its inception to the present day. (January 2009) Resources in English on Czech Literature, Cinema and Politics Czech and Slovak Literature Resources at Oxford – many of the links are to Czech pages, most descriptions in English. Contains also a historic overview Czech Literature since the 1980s – lecture Brief history with a few capsule portraits Overview from Encyclopædia Britannica Potápěč – Czech and Slovak Literature Resources – Czech Literature Resources. In Czech. Lecture about changes after the fall of communism Article about current state of Czech culture and Western mis-perceptions of it, with readers' polemic Columbia Encyclopedia –