EXPERIMENT ÚMYSLNÉ PRAVDY V DÍLE JAKUBA DEMLA
JAKUB DEML’S EXPERIMENT OF THE INTENTIONAL TRUTH

Summary/Abstract: The study concentrates on Jakub Deml’s text of Mé svědectví o Otokaru Březinovi (1931, My Testimony on Otokar Březina). In this work Deml describes in his idiosyncratic way not only the thought of Březina, but also Březina’s comments on Deml’s writings. Since Březina was well read in several European and even American literatures (he had a good command of several foreign languages), he was knowledgeable enough to meaningfully compare and contrast Deml’s writings with literary works of some renown world authors. These authors as a rule belonged to the literary canon, accepted officially in the prewar Czech society. As a result, Deml, ať Březina’s behest, tried even more persistently to experiment with the formal and ideational aspects of his writings. It is then through Deml’s experimental endeavor that Březina appears to have become instrumental in destroying and, ať the same time, in creating the canonical modeling system of Czech literature. The proverbial solve et coagulla seems thus to effectively apply to the experimental literary activity which Deml through Březina’s encouragement carried out in the prewar Czech society. Because of its innovative and creative character, Deml’s work became an exemplary textual paradigm which served as a cognitive stimulus for the further pursuit in the Czech avant-garde experimentation.

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