O národním humanismu, jeho domnělém zakladateli a takzvaném manifestu
National humanism, its supposed founder and “manifesto”

Summary/Abstract: The term national humanism, which has hitherto been generally valid and understood to be a deliberately created group of litterati with a proclaimed leader, a founding manifesto and a specific literary programme is the product of a long-standing myth-creation process, which started in the 19th century and culminated in Czech postwar Marxist-nationalist-inspired literary hisoriography. This legendary narrative presents the figure of Viktorin Kornel of Všehrdy as a founding father who in his famous preface to the translation by Jan Zlatoústý allegedly fomulated the programme for this new literary movement. However, this interpretation does not stand up to critical examination. The celebrated author Viktorin Kornel did not write any original work in Czech or translate any antique or humanist writings. Besides, an unbiased reading of this preface shows that it does not express any programme or any group policy. Hence the time has come for the history of the reception of humanism in literature written in Czech to extricate itself from this distorted interpretation and to start to examine more thoroughly the other protagonists who have hitherto been upstaged by this grand Všehrdy legend.

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