Karel Poláček

Czech writer, humorist, journalist, and film screenwriter of Jewish descent. He is regarded as one of the most important Czech-language humorists. In his novels, he depicts above all the absurdity and tragedy of the “little man’s” life. Some of his works can be described as a specific “trade novel,” where all the characters are strongly shaped by their profession or hobby. Poláček’s style is mostly laconic, unadorned, and anti-romantic, though it also contains moments of carefully measured pathos. He often uses with comic effect the constant epithet (epitheton constans). For his consistent opposition to journalistic and political cliché, his bittersweet humor, and inner realism, he has been compared to A. P. Chekhov.