Humanities

386 LEITERS IN CANADA vers disloqUl!s, eclates, defaits. Chamberland, dont chacune des etapes de l'evolution cOIncide exactement avec celie de la collectivite, obtient une fois de plus Ie privilege d'interpreter les angoisses et les reves de la multitude. II dit que violence et perversion n'ont pas fini de s'accroitre, que Ie langage haussera encore SOn degre d'incommunicabilite, que les forces oppressives poursuivront leurs assauts contre les individus ; mais il annOnce aussi que les temps changent, il predit l'avenement d'un age d'or ou l'homme oubliera ce que c'etait que d'etre seul, une fois entre« dans l'eternelle communaute des etres vivants >. (JACQUES BLAIS) HUMANITIES Hermann PaJsson and Paul Edwards, translators, Hrolf Gautreksscm: A Viking Romance. University of Toronto Press, 96, $5.00 This is the third volume of translations of Icelandic legendary sagas to be published by Hermann Palsson and Paul Edwards. (See Gautrek's Saga and Other Medieval Tales, University of London Press & New York University Press 1968, and Arrow-Odd: A Medieval Novel, New York University Press 1970.) Until recently most of these sagas had been unavailable to the English reader since scholarly interest was centred on the more highly esteemed family sagas. The legendary sagas, in the form in which we have them, were written in the period 125()....1350. In the introduction to Hrolf Gautreksson the translators suggest that such stories were 'essentially escape literature, and therefore appealing to Icelanders living in those politically and economically troublesome times.' In view of the antiquity of the folklore elements contained in these sagas, and the popularity of the romance style throughout Europe, this apology for the audience seems unnecessary. The story of Hrolf Gautreksson is similar to other legendary sagas in that it consists of a series of self-lution of narrative techniques in twentieth-century fiction. (JOHN A. WALKER) Josef Skvorecky, All the Bright Young Men and Women: A Personal History of the Czech Cinema. Peter Martin, $8.95 Art and the State. Artists and bureaucrats - both sides claiming to represent 'the People.' The artist's vision deriving from tradition, from popular culture, and from his own spontaneous, creative drives - sources often without strictly national and strictly ideological identities, and often, therefore baffiing to officials of the State, whose functions are defined exactly in terms of ideological structures and national needs. Whether regarded by civil servants, or as civil servants, artists often seem not to know their place, no matter how well it is defined for them by the keepers of ideologies. In his account of the Czech film industry, Josef Skvorecky shows what happens when the creative energies of a small group of film artists (screen writers, performers, directors) try to produce films unacceptable to the caretakers of political orthodoxy. Milos Forman, Vera Chytilova, Jan Nemec, Ester Krumbachova, Evald Sclrorm, Jiri Menzel, and others of the Czech 'New Wave' made a sudden international stir in the 1960s, only to be suppressed as swiftly and surely as Russia's tanks ended the famous 'thaw' under Alexander Dubcek. Skvorecky, a Czech writer, sometime film actor, and friend of nearly all of the 'New Wave' figures, describes from inside the rise and fall of the 'New Wave.' Regret, anguish (but never despair), nostalgia, irony, and, surprisingly often, humour - HUMANITIES 429 the high, good humour of an accomplished raconteur - give to Skvorecky's work far greater interest than One often finds in film histories. Only the opening section suffers from the 'History of ...' syndrome: compilations of names, titles, dates, and occasional sweeping generalizations serve to cover the early years of Czech film. However, the book becomes increaSingly interesting as Skvorecky takes up the gifted artists and major films produced before and during the 'New Wave: and relates the film culture to developments in art, literature, and popular entertainment . He shows that the 'New Wave' drew upon many sources of inspiration and had many allies in Czech culture as a whole. Finding constant 'variations of a sad theme: as he puts it, in the careers of individual artists and in the collective fate of his country, Skvorecky quotes Milos Forman: '1 think that all that is noble, and which has remained...