Title: Czech Sci-fi Fanzines in the Era of Late Socialism and Early Post-socialism
Abstract: T he publication of unofficial literature in the extensive cultural-geographical area of the so-called "Eastern Bloc" in the second half of the 20 th century has been the subject of much research by historians of contemporary history, literary critics and cultural anthropologists. 1 There existed an extremely wide range of publication forums, distribution channels, themes and links between the "official" and "unofficial" levels of social communication, which differed across the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.Periodicals connected with the activities of various subcultures, some of them bordering on the illegal, formed a remarkable part of this publishing phenomenon.The aim of my study will be to outline the basic characteristics of the publication activities of members of the sci-fi (or SF) fandom subculture, both in the period of late socialism as well as in the subsequent years and show both the continuities and discontinuities in this community against the backdrop of socio-cultural changes in Czech society after 1989.I understand subculture to be a social group with its own rules, which may define itself in opposition to the majority of society, but which is not completely isolated, and whose members may also be part 1 At present there is extensive secondary literature on this subject on an international level, much of which focuses on Russia, where the samizdat activities started.The general context for Central-Eastern Europe during the time we are considering in this study has been examined by, e.g.