Ostravské muzeum

Kavárna / Café

The Czech word kavárna means a café: a relatively small establishment that serves coffee and other refreshments. However, kavárna is also used nowadays as a pejorative term meaning a group of liberal urban intellectuals who play a vocal role in public life – as in the phrases pražská kavárna (literally “Prague café”, referring to the liberal metropolitan elite in the Czech capital) or lumpenkavárna (a play on the word lumpenproletariat, used to describe the chronically unemployed or lazy sections of society). Under the communist regime, cafés were viewed by the authorities as suspicious places, synonymous with elitism, opposition, and “dangerous” opinions. And in some people’s eyes, cafés retain this controversial symbolism even today.

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