Glossary of Terms
Underground
The cultural movement which sought to maintain a space for unrestrained art and thought amidst the censorship and institutional control of the normalization era in Czechoslovakia. The “underground” included writers, visual artists and performers, and was often the focus of police harassment. Perhaps the most famous underground artists were those associated with the rock band The Plastic People of the Universe, who were often unable to perform legally and were beaten and jailed on account of their performances.