Images of the prison camps of communist period in the Czech literature

The aim of this work was to describe the literary image of communist prison camps in Czechoslovakia in the 50th of 20th century. The first part of this work consists of basic facts about formation and progression of prison camps in former Soviet Union and in former Czechoslovakia. The second part contains analysis of four prison novels: Studené slunce (author Jiří Mucha), Štestí (author Jiří Stránský), Na co umírají muži and Motáky nezvěstnému (author Karel Pecka). The topic of the analysis is the manner of narration and composition and the comparison of relations between reality and fiction in cited novels. The highets degree of literary stylization appears in prison diary Studené slunce. On the contrary, the most realistic image of communist prison camps is placed in Karel Pecka's works. The optimistic nature and using of cinematic methods belongs to the specific signs of Štěstí