A lecture by Thomas C. Mercier (post-doc. CEFRES / Charles University) in the frame of the Franco-czech historical seminar organized by Institute for Czech History of the Faculty of arts, Charles University (FFUK), in collaboration with CEFRES.

Venue: Faculty of Arts of Charles University, nám. J. Palacha 2, Prague 1, room 201
Time: 9:10-10:30
Language: French

Abstract: This seminar will evoke several episodes in the history of Czechoslovak intellectual dissidence before the Velvet Revolution. We will pay particular interest to philosopher-dissidents, to their
discourses and practices in the wake of the Charter 77, and to the transnational network “Jan Hus” which connected Czechoslovak, British, and French intellectuals from 1980 to 1989 and
beyond.
The study of a famous episode — Jacques Derrida’s arrest in Prague in 1981 as he was participating in a clandestine seminar in support of Czechoslovak dissidents, in the context of his political-institutional engagements as Vice President of the Jan Hus Association — will serve as the basis for analyzing the concepts of “dissidence” and “revolution”.