Editing Czech Republic (section)

=== Literature ===
{{Main|Czech literature}}
[[File:Kafka.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Franz Kafka]]]]
The literature from the area of today's Czech Republic was mostly written in Czech, but also in [[Latin]] and German or even [[Old Church Slavonic]]. [[Franz Kafka]], although a competent user of Czech, wrote in his mother tongue, German.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hawes|first=James|author-link=James Hawes (author)|title=Why You Should Read Kafka Before You Waste Your Life|url=https://archive.org/details/whyyoushouldread0000hawe|url-access=registration|year=2008|publisher=St. Martin's Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0-312-37651-2 |page=29}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Sayer|first=Derek|title=The Language of Nationality and the Nationality of Language: Prague 1780–1920|url=https://wslide.com/the-language-of-nationality-and-the-nationality-of-language-prague-1780-1920|year=1996|journal=Past and Present|location=Oxford|doi=10.1093/past/153.1.164|oclc=394557|issue=153|pages=164–210|access-date=25 January 2021|archive-date=7 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200407115003/https://wslide.com/the-language-of-nationality-and-the-nationality-of-language-prague-1780-1920|url-status=dead}}</ref> His works include ''[[The Trial]]'' and ''[[The Castle (novel)|The Castle]]''.

In the second half of the 13th century, the royal court in Prague became one of the centers of German [[Minnesang]] and courtly literature. The Czech German-language literature can be seen in the first half of the 20th century.

[[Bible translations into Czech|Bible translations]] played a role in the development of Czech literature. The oldest Czech translation of the [[Psalms]] originated in the late 13th century and the first complete Czech translation of the Bible was finished around 1360. The first complete printed Czech Bible was published in 1488. The first complete Czech Bible translation from the original languages was published between 1579 and 1593. The [[Codex Gigas]] from the 12th century is the largest extant medieval manuscript in the world.<ref>{{cite web|date=19 October 2005|title=Codex Gigas: The Devil's Bible|url=https://www.praguepost.com/culture/codex-gigas|access-date=5 January 2021|website=Prague Post}}</ref>
[[File:Jaroslav Seifert 1981 foto Hana Hamplová crop.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Jaroslav Seifert]], winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature]]
Czech-language literature can be divided into several periods: the Middle Ages; the Hussite period; the [[Renaissance humanism]]; the Baroque period; the Enlightenment and Czech reawakening in the first half of the 19th century, modern literature in the second half of the 19th century; the avant-garde of the interwar period; the years under Communism; and the Czech Republic.

The antiwar comedy novel ''[[The Good Soldier Švejk]]'' is the most translated Czech book in history.

The international literary award the [[Franz Kafka Prize]] is awarded in the Czech Republic.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.franzkafka-soc.cz/cena-franze-kafky/|title=Společnost Franze Kafky – Cena Franze Kafky|website=www.franzkafka-soc.cz|access-date=9 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170113073540/http://www.franzkafka-soc.cz/cena-franze-kafky|archive-date=13 January 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>

The Czech Republic has the densest network of libraries in Europe.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.praguemorning.cz/the-czech-republic-has-the-densest-library-network-in-the-world/|title=The Czech Republic Has The Densest Library Network In The World|first=Dave|last=Patterson|work=Videos & News |date=21 July 2016|access-date=9 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170211161305/http://www.praguemorning.cz/the-czech-republic-has-the-densest-library-network-in-the-world/|archive-date=11 February 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>

Czech literature and culture played a 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.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hqNKzuQ1N70C&q=Czech+culture+and+literature+in+political+activity&pg=PP9|title=The Struggle for the Soul of the Nation: Czech Culture and the Rise of Communism|last=Abrams|first=Bradley F.|date=2005|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-0-7425-3024-9}}</ref>