Práce na postupu: Puzzle
Work in progress: Jigsaw

How newly discovered and reconstituted manuscripts change our image of Deml’s work

Summary/Abstract: This study deals with previously unknown manuscripts that the authors have identified and reassembled in an as yet unorganized section of the Jakub Deml fonds in the Museum of Czech Literature (PNP) Literary Archive. These manuscripts, fragments and variants of some seventy books and dozens of unpublished texts make a significant contribution to our understanding of the genetics and meaning of the work as a whole. They alter our idea of its genre composition, clarify information on the origin, authorship, co-authorship and addressees of the texts and testify to the complex, non-linear chronology of the work. The authors identify three periods in which Deml’s manuscripts have different functions: the first period involves manuscripts and to a limited extent publishing (1896-1911); the second period independent publishing (1912-1941); the third period is the second manuscript period (1941-1961), when manuscripts became the main medium. Subsequently the study comments on the possibilities of a critical edition of the entire work. It compares the approach of the samizdat Works of Jakub Deml and Collected Writings, touches upon the limits of the second edition brought about by the omission of a substantial part of the author's personal papers and proposes a solution in the form of a digital edition.

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