Hana Preinhaelterová

Hana Preinhaelterová (née Pletánková; 12 September 1938 – 24 June 2018) was a Czech Indologist and translator, specialising in the Bengali language and literature. She was well known for her Základní kurs bengálštiny ("Basic course in Bengali"), a set of textbooks for learning the language.

Life and career Hana Pletánková was born in České Budějovice on 12 September 1938. In 1958, she graduated from the School of Economics in Plzeň.

She studied Bengali and English at the Charles University in Prague under Dušan Zbavitel. For her postgraduate studies, she attended Visva-Bharati University at Santiniketan in India. Based on her experiences, she published Moje bengálské přítelkyně ("My Bengali Female Friends") in 1978, which was translated to Russian, Slovak and Bengali.

From 1964, she taught the Bengali language at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University.

In 1968, she published her doctoral dissertation titled Humor v bengálské lidové literatuře ("Humour in Bengali Folk Literature"). She taught English and Bengali at a language school in Prague till 1990, when she was able to return to the Faculty of Arts. She now focused on cultural anthropology and the interconnection of social and religious aspects in Bengali life.

For her candidate dissertation, Preinhaelterová analysed the disintegration of the Bengali joint family as depicted in the works of Ashapoorna Devi (1992).

Preinhaelterová published a number of translations from modern Bengali literature into the Czech language. She concentrated on short stories by authors such as Ashapoorna Devi and Sunil Gangopadhyay. She also translated from Czech to Bengali.

On the occasion of her 70th birthday, a book of essays edited by Lubomír Ondračka, Mé zlaté Bengálsko: Studie k bengálskému náboženství a kultuře věnované Haně Preinhaelterové k jejím sedmdesátinám, was published in 2008.

Preinhaelterová died on 24 June 2018.

Selected works Monographs

Translations To Czech

To Bengali