Vratislav Effenberger (22 April 1923 in Nymburk – 10 August 1986 in Prague) was a Czech literature theoretician. He has German Bohemian descent from his paternal side, but has assimilated into Czech.

In 1944, Effenberger left industrial school with his Abitur. He went to study chemistry and the history of art as well as aesthetics at the philosophical faculty. Starting from 1946, he joined the Czechoslovakian Film institute, from which he was dismissed 1954. He was then a worker until 1966 and later was appointed to the Czech Academy of Sciences. In 1970, he was dismissed for political reasons and had to take a job as a nightwatchman. In 1969, he became editor of the surrealist magazine Analogon; which around 1968 it published newspapers and magazines, which were concerned with literature, theatre or art.^[1][2]

He became famous with a collection of film scripts and pseudo-scripts Surovost života a cynismus fantasie.

Most of his works were self-published in a handwritten form. He also published numerous articles in newspapers and magazines. Some of his works were seized and destroyed by the Czech State Security.^{[citation needed]}

• 2018 Vratislav Effenberger aneb Lov na černého žraloka (Vratislav Effenberger, or Hunting on a Black Shark), document, 85 min. Directed David Jařab (CS)