TROJÍ AKTUALIZACE HAVLÍČKOVY BÁSNICKÉ SATIRY KŘEST SVATÉHO VLADIMÍRA
THREE UPDATIGS OF HAVLÍČEK'S POEM KŘEST SVATÉHO VLADIMÍRA (THE CONVERSION OF ST. VLADIMIR)

Summary/Abstract: The social renown of the journalist and satirical poet Karel Havlíček (1821-1856), his profound influence on the development of Czech political journalism in the 1840s and 1850s and eo ipso influence on the foundations of Czech political culture in general, as well as his unprecedented impact on public opinion have been the reason why the interest in his life and work has never diminished. Undoubtedly, the tragic end of his life and the fate of his nearest family have also contributed to it. Also, the interest in the legacy of the ideas of his work keeps periodically returning. This is reflected, among other things, by two attempts at „finishing“ the text of the longest poetic satire, The Conversion of St Vladimir, which he could not finish because of his premature death. The first such attempt was Křest říše ruské (1921; The Conversion of the Russian Empire) by a marginal Czech journalist Karel Juda (1871-1959). More succesfull as a work of literature was the second attempt (1978) by Pavel Hořanský (1944; pen name of Jan Novotný), a research worker in physics, a prose writer, journalist and translator. Both authors recognize Havlíček's poem as their model and join their „finishing part“ organically to Havlíček´s text. Both of them know that it is impossible to supply the original ending and though they acknowledge „Havlíček's spirit“, they apply it to the contemporary social and political situation in Czechoslovakia. While Karel Juda opposed the rising influence of the revolutionary left in Czechoslovakia after the First World War, Pavel Hořanský appealed against the political indifference of citizens in the era of „normalization“ during the twenty-year old occupation ofCzechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact armies. Thus each attempt at „finishing“ the torso of Havlíček's poem is a different kind of updating. The third attempt to make The Conversion of St Vladimir topical, is a long rhymed paraphrase named Křest národu českého (The Conversion of the Czech nation). It was composed between the dates of the two modern compositions, in the days of the Second World War and the Nazi Protectorate, the torso of the territory of the Czechoslovak republic. It was a work of the illegal organization, V boj (Let's fight), and denounced the Nazi terror and wanted to strengthen the determination of the nation to resist the occupation. Due to the printing difficulties it only reached the public after the end of the war.

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