Anledningen til å jobbe fritt (Milada Blekastads virksomhet)

Milada Blekastad (1917–2003) was a translator, writer, and university lecturer. She was born in Prague; however, she spent most of her life in Norway. She translated books from Czech to Norwegian and vice versa. Blekastad was also a scholar focusing on the work of Jan Amos Comenius (1592–1670), a leading humanist, theologist, philosopher, and pedagog. Norway helped Blekastad to develop her full potential. In return, she worked hard to introduce Czech (or wider European) cultural values to Norway through her work. What circumstances shaped the mutually enriching relationship between Blekastad and the Norwegian intellectual, academic, and cultural environments? What drove her rising social trajectory? To answer these questions, one must look at the social fields she operated in, at her habitus, and at the cultural and economic capital she managed to turn into symbolic capital in a country that was not her homeland.