"Křičel jsem: – Mrdat, mrdat!"

Vítězslav Nezval a jeho poetika Moskvy

Author(s): Tomáš Glanc / Language(s): Czech Issue: 3-4/2020

In August 1934, poet and writer Vítězslav Nezval (1900–1958), a leading personality of the Czechoslovak inter-war art avant-garde and also a member of the Communist party, visited Moscow as one of the Western guests invited to the founding congress of the Union of Soviet Writers; one year later, he published a prosaic-essayistic reflection of his visit under the title "The Invisible Moscow" (Neviditelná Moskva. Praha: F. Borový, 1935). The purpose of the present study approached from a semiotic angle is to obtain access to the intentional meaning of this specific testimony concealed behind a factual description of events and environments. The author first outlines a broader socio-political context consisting in an intensive interest of Western left-wing intellectuals in the Soviet Union between the world wars and, on the other hand, in systematic efforts of the Soviet leadership to make use of this potential for their own benefit. Nezval ranked among artists who felt a priori sympathies toward the Soviet social experiment, and they are clearly seen in his text, although he himself declared that his intention was not to provide a testimony about the Soviet “objective reality” which is what media reports or articles do. To understand Nezval’s work, the author believes it must be kept in mind that Nezval, while in the Soviet Union, was looking for, first and foremost, inspiration and connections with poetic and ideological principles he professed. Nezval’s cognitive method is intuition, free of any rational and critical reflections, and his creative principle is imagination, whose incarnation Nezval founds in surrealism. The reality around him serves as a matter for a distillation of experiences occurring in a dream mode. This allows him to overlook or willfully interpret various phenomena related, for example, to the repressive aspect of Stalin’s regime or the onerous everydayness of the Soviet Union’s citizens. The author sees the dominant feature of this dreamlike experience and the line connecting seemingly incompatible segments of reality into all-embracing lyrical intoxication in an erotic principle. Nezval is excited by Moscow as an object of bliss, as a source of sexual arousal. This principle is offered to him as a key enabling an individual to cross the boundary of individualism and blend into the society as a bridge between the eternity of sexual ecstasy and the eternity of the classless Communist society, thus promising the fulfillment of human utopias. The author provides an analysis of the text of "The Invisible Moscow" in support of his conclusions, and links them to some period esthetic and philosophical concepts.

"New human possibilities" in Patočka's philosophy of literature

Author(s): Erin Plunkett / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2020

This article considers Patočka's phenomenological account of literature in "The Writer's Concern" to defend the idea that literary writing offers a distinctive philosophical contribution. In this text, Patočka gives the writer a special claim on the activity of world disclosure and suggests that literature may offer a glimpse out of the techno-scientific framework that dominates contemporary life. I examine both science and literature as modes of relating to the world, raising questions about the distinctiveness of each and their use of the written word. Finally, I locate the philosophical advantage of literary writing in Patočka's dual claims about literature: that it offers "an individual capturing of life's meaning" and that it presents "the world" as an "undivided" whole.

"Temné jeho oči doslova fascinují"

Cesta českých kulturních pracovníků do Německa a Holandska v září 1940

Author(s): Jiří Křesťan / Language(s): Czech Issue: 3-4/2020

Between 1939 and 1943, trips to Nazi Germany and to territories occupied by Germany (France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, a large part of the Soviet Union) ranked among important tools influencing the public opinion in the so-called Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. The study deals with a trip of a group of Czech intellectuals – artists, representatives of culture and journalists – to Germany and the Netherlands in September 1940. Under German guidance, the 35-strong delegation was composed to give a representative and diverse impression. Apart from newspapermen collaborating with Germans, such as Karel Lažnovský (1906–1941) or Vladimír Krychtálek (1903–1947), men active in different segments of culture were invited as well, including personalities as outstanding as the directors of the dramatic company and the opera ensemble of the National Theatre in Prague, Jan Bor (1886–1943) and Václav Talich (1883–1961), respectively, operatic singers Jan Konstantin (1894–1965) and Pavel Ludikar (1882–1970), violin virtuoso Váša Příhoda (1900–1960), publisher Bedřich Fučík (1900–1984), or architect Jan Sokol (1904–1987). The study focuses primarily on five writers who took part in the trip. Jaroslav Durych (1886–1962) and Václav Renč (1911–1973) ranked among Catholic-oriented authors, while Josef Knap (1900–1973) and Jan Čarek (1898–1966) represented so-called ruralists (writers of the country), and Josef Hora (1891–1945) was a leading poet, initially writing social poetry and later reflexive lyric poetry. Between the wars, all of them had been critical toward the reality of the First Republic in one way or another, the first four from conservative positions and Hora on the left (until 1929, he had been a member of the Communist Party). The trip’s programme had been put together very ingeniously. In addition to proofs of the Third Reich’s brutal strength (a visit of the bombed-out city of Rotterdam, a sightseeing tour of the Krupp arms factory in Essen), the travelers were served a menu of diverse cultural experiences (visits of theatrical performances, exhibitions and museums, outstanding architectural creations etc.). In Berlin, they were received by Joseph Goebbels (1897–1945), Reichsminister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, who emphasized, while addressing them, that the survival of the Czech nation and its culture depended on its submission to the German Reich. Upon their return home, all participants were forced to give public statements about the trip and their impressions, which had to conform to Nazi propaganda. Having described the above facts, the author analyzes defence strategies which the above mentioned authors were using while writing made-to-order articles or showing their supposed loyalty in order to avoid being dragged into the Nazi propaganda machine. They were bypassing some topics, resorting to allegories and ambiguities, and making use of concealed irony. In the end of the study, the author follows the fates of those who took part in the trip to Germany and the Netherlands, pondering, in a more general manner, fuzzy boundaries and dilemmas of guilt and collaboration in a totalitarian regime. Attached to the article are short biographies of all thirty-five participants in the trip.

(Nejen) k ideálnímu realismu

Author(s): Zdeněk Hrbata / Language(s): Czech Issue: 3/2019

Několikaleté úsilí o přesnější vnitřní členění české literatury 19. století, podložené analýzami a koncepcemi často mířícími proti obecným a tradičně užívaným pojmům (romantismus, realismus, neoromantismus ad.), vedlo k dů- ležitým pojmovým inovacím a pojetím. Z nich nutno připomenout už starší vymezení literárního biedermeieru (Dalibor Tureček), dále české literární romantično spojené s jeho synopticko-pulzačním modelem (viz tureček et al. 2012), nověji pak český a slovenský literární parnasismus jakožto kulturní jev (viz haman — tureček et al. 2015), po němž následovala poetika českého a slovenského literárního klasicismu (tureček — zajac 2018) — a naposledy aktualizaci někdejšího pojmu ideální realismus u Michala Charypara. K nim chci ještě připojit významnou práci Martina Hrdiny a jím navrhované pojmy- -atributy rozdělující literární realismus na jeho synteticko-harmonizující pojetí a na jeho pojetí analyticko-kombinatorické (hrdina 2015). Krom toho M. Hrdina požaduje věnovat při výzkumu počátků českého realismu zvýšenou pozornost středoevropskému kulturnímu kontextu (německojazyčný kontext české literatury). O tom jistě není z literárněhistorického hlediska — ať už užšího, anebo širšího (kdy do problematiky nevyhnutelně vstupuje komparativní hledisko tzv. generální literatury, zaměřující se např. právě na středoevropský kulturní prostor s jeho příznačnými konfiguracemi) — sporu. Specifičnost a kontury českého realismu by však mohly vyvstávat ještě zřetelněji při průběžném srovnávání s jeho dalšími zahraničními modely či inspiracemi, případně ve srovnávání různých typologických koincidencí bez geneticko-kontaktových souvislostí.

(Un)Familiar Jewishness in the Work of Jiří Weil

Author(s): Marie Brunová / Language(s): English Issue: 39/2022

Jiří Weil (1900–1959), the Czech writer of Jewish origin, is known primarily for his works of fiction dealing with the experience of the Shoah, both in the form of short stories and his celebrated novels Život s hvězdou (Life with a Star, 1949) and Na střeše je Mendelssohn (Mendelssohn is on the Roof, 1960), as well as the text collage Žalozpěv za 77 297 obětí (Lamentation for 77 297 Victims, 1958). However, the fact that Weil presented the theme of Jewishness also from a different perspective is often overlooked — for example in the novel Harfeník (The Harpist, 1958) and in the unpublished texts ‘Perrotina, mašina chlebozlodějská’ (Perrotine, the Bread-Stealing Machine) and ‘Tiskařská romance’ (A Printer’s Romance), in which he linked the theme of Jewishness to that of the beginnings of the labour movement in the Czech lands in the 19th century. Although Weil’s post-war literary output is characterised by his focus on themes of Jewishness and the Shoah, we also find Jewish figures represented in his pre-war novel writing. Last but not least, it is necessary also to recall his texts of a non-fiction character, in which he dealt with Jewish themes in the course of his employment at the State Jewish Museum. The focal point of this contribution therefore resides in the presentation of Weil’s lesser-known texts, dealing with the theme of Jewishness other than through the prism of the Shoah, and in his uncovering of a complex of Jewish identities in his pre-war novel Moskvahranice (Moscow-Border, 1937).

100 години Лекторат по български език и литература в Карловия университет в Прага

Author(s): Milena Přikrylová / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 33/2016

30 let po pádu železné opony

Author(s): Dagmar Vobecká / Language(s): Czech Issue: 1/2021

Report from the conference 30 let po pádu železné opony

A AUSGERECHNET U VÁS SE ŠPRECHTILO VOSTOŠEST…

K ČESKO-NĚMECKÝM JAZYKOVÝM KONTAKTŮM V SOUČASNÉ ČESKÉ PRÓZE

Author(s): Darina Hradilová / Language(s): Czech Issue: 2/2015

The aim of this paper was to analyze the Czech and German language contacts in contemporary Czech prose. We focused on forms of multilingualism and how they are used in the texts. Analysis of the material ( R. Denemarková: Peníze od Hitlera; J. Vrak: Obyčejné věci a Dokonalost nože; M. Kozelka: Semeniště zmrdů a J. Rudiš: Pankáči na Baltu) showed that it is necessary to distinguish between the use of authentic German in the characterization and value function, German quotations and paraphrases with the function of ironic allusions and germanisms whose usage does not indicate national, but social affiliation. We noticed a shift from interlingual heterogeneity, in terms of the opposition between Czech and German, to introlingual heterogeneity, in terms of functional stratification of Czech, therefore the opposition of standard vs. substandard. We concluded that German cannot be identified German with „the foreign“ and the Czech with „the ours“ in language, because the border is permeable and flexible as a consequence of mutual contacts.

A Comparison of 20th Century Theories of Style (in the Context of Czech and British Scholarly Discourses)

Author(s): Michal Křístek / Language(s): English

The book is focused on a comparison of theoretical approaches to issues of style, in the context of Czech and Anglo-Saxon (especially British) scholarly discourses. The aim was to show and compare different methodological approaches based on different theoretical bases – for this reason, two different cultural contexts were selected, attention being paid also to mutual contacts within these contexts. The 20th century was chosen intentionally, as the period during which, in both of the respective contexts, stylistics was constituted as a modern scholarly discipline rooted in the fields of linguistics and literary theory. The book is aimed at members of academic communities, at teachers as well as at students, especially at those focusing on Czech and English studies.

A guest from the unknown : Antigone and Jan Patočka's cultural criticism

Author(s): Jonathan Bolton / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2020

Jan Patočka is often seen as an apolitical philosopher who did not step onto the public stage until the end of his life, when he chose to support underground musicians who were put on trial by the Communist government in 1976. This view, seen for example in the obituary issued by Charter 77 shortly after Patočka's death, ignores his long career of cultural criticism and his many essays that use Czech literature and culture as a springboard to discuss social and political concerns. One such essay is Patočka's review of Milan Uhde's 1967 play "The Whore of Thebes," a modernization of Antigone that Patočka castigates for misunderstanding the mysteries of this classic play. A reading of Patočka's review points to a different genealogy for his support of the music underground, and his understanding of the relationship between philosophy and action more generally. Patočka's many writings on art and culture constitute an ongoing commentary on the social and political world around him, painting a much different picture than the conventional image of an abstruse philosopher who did not enter the world of politics until the very end of his life.

A Literary Piece as a Sociological Work: The Concept of Modernity in Karel Čapek’s War With the Newts

Author(s): Karel Hlaváček / Language(s): English Issue: 17/2021

In this text, I interpret Karel Čapek’s novel War With the Newts (1936) as a sociological work and analyze the concept of the modern age that it presents. First, I show in what sense Čapek’s work was sociological. Following Theodor Adorno, I suggest that the difference between literature and sociology is not of a fundamental but of a historical and analytical nature, and that what defines sociology is not method, empiricism, or explicitly defined concepts, but the insightful notion of social totality. In Čapek, I analyze a totality that I find in his concept of the modern age. Such an analysis provides insight into the self-destructive power of modern society. I suggest that Čapek’s portrayal of modernity still applies today and that we can recognize the same patterns he presented in the world around us.

A message from a Bohemian "interculture" : Patočka's translation of Durych's Boží duha

Author(s): Rajendra A. Chitnis / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2020

Jan Patočka's essay accompanying his 1975 German translation of Jaroslav Durych's novel, Boží duha (God's rainbow, 1969) has divided Czech critics. While some reject altogether his association of the novel with the post-war expulsion of the Bohemian German population from Czechoslovakia, others criticize the effect his essay has had in reducing the novel to this context, undermining its more universal message of reconciliation, and others objected to the co-opting of the conservative Roman Catholic Durych into a secular liberal agenda. This article approaches the translation venture and its reception as a case study in translation history, in order to assess these criticisms in the light of a more accurate and detailed understanding of Patočka's motives for publishing the translation. It focuses on both Patočka and his collaborator in the venture, the German academic, Frank Boldt, and compares his foreword with contemporaneous essays on Comenius and on Czech history. It argues that the real difficulty is not so much Patočka's interpretation of Durych's novel as their long-standing inseparability in translations and Czech editions, which disrupts the careful balance in the novel between history and universality and between didacticism and aestheticism.

Abecedář hudebních nástrojů: slovo-obraz-hudba

Author(s): Radomil Novák / Language(s): Czech Issue: 2/2021

The recent book Hudebníček (2020) by M. Černý and P. Nikl is a multimedia project in which musical instruments are thematised by joining words, pictures and music. The book is multigenre. It can characterised as a poetry, (sound) dictionary of music instruments, picture book or illustrated encyclopaedia. The alphabet is the only compositional principle for its verbal, pictorial and musical parts. Multimedia combination of words and pictures (in the book), words and music (on the CD), intermedia references such as thematisation (music instruments) and imitation (auditivity of the text) are utilised in the book. The book has a potential to develop not only interdisciplinary relations in school, but also a creative approach to art education.

Activitatea de trăducători şi creaţia originală a fraţilor Chiril şi Metodie

Author(s): Heliana Ianculescu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 2/2013

Brothers Constantine, with monk name Cyril, and his older brother Michael, commonly known by his monk name Methodius, make a mark in the history of the Slavic peoples as the creators of the Slavic alphabet (the so-called Glagolitic alphabet with 38 letters) and the first Slavic literary language, called Old Church Slavonic. The brothers Cyril and Methodius became known also by their literary work (chiefly translations), which began at the initiative of the Prince Rostislav of Great Moravia and upon the instruction of the Byzantine Emperor Michael III. The two brothers are credited with taking part in the founding of a literary school in the territory of Great Moravia. The works written there are for the most part of religious character and they are of high theological and stylistic quality. Before coming to Great Moravia, Cyril translated the so-called Evangelion, the Gospel Book containing the texts of the Gospels read on Sundays and holidays. They include the first chapter of the Gospel according to John. He also translated the complete order of events observed during the service, based on the Byzantine liturgy. Methodius edited the translation of the Old and New Testament, without the Books of the Maccabees. The Books of the Gospel translated by Cyril and Methodius into the Slavic language were approved by the Pope Adrian II who placed them on the altar in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore and sanctified them. Concurrently with the approval of the Slavic books, the first Liturgy in the Slavic language was served in Rome. According to the Czech Slavicist František Václav Mareš, the brothers Cyril and Methodius are the authors of 18 works, out of which 8 are original and 10 are translations, mainly of religious literature but also legal and administrative texts. The literary work (both translations and original works) of the brothers Cyril and Methodius is characterized by admirable content as well as high artistic and linguistic quality. It represents the cornerstone of the Slavic literature from which literature of other Slavic peoples has developed.

Adaptace pověsti o dívčí válce v české humanistické literatuře

Author(s): Lucie Storchová / Language(s): Czech Issue: 6/2019

This study follows the ways in which humanist literature dealt with the subject of what was known as the Maidens’ War, i.e. the mythological conflict between women and men before the arrival of Christianity, as referred to in Czech medieval chronicles. The author bases herself on concepts of historical narrativism and asks what role the representation of this was played in humanist stories of Czech history and the irideological elements (e.g. in narratives on the emergence of the monarchical form of government). She also focuses on ideas prevalent at that time on various types offemininity, gender order and its disruption and the concept of the „virago“, i.e. the defeminized virginal individual gifted with male virtues. The author shows how the story of the Maidens’ War was dependent upon strategies of obtaining patronage,primarily at court, as well as on the individual and collective self-presentation of scholars. She deals with the differences between the rendition of this mythological conflict in Latin and in the vernacular languages, where e.g. the comical with a sexual subtext is much more common.

Ale je Holan 1997

Author(s): Zdeněk Kožmín / Language(s): Czech Issue: 2/2016

Někdy mě přitahovala myšlenka, že by bylo žádoucí napsat cosi jako „poetickou geometrii“ Holanovy poezie. Všecko by tu muselo být sledováno od „velkého třesku“ jako pohyb v obrovitém čase a prostoru, ale současně s tímto demiurgickým velegestem bychom museli zaznamenávat všudypřítomný holanovský protipohyb v nejmenším měřítku kdesi blízko dechu, v čarách dlaně, v bití srdce, v teplé „biologii“ řeči, v nejkřehčím přibližování k hlasu. Taková přesnost deskripce by nám umožňovala pracovat ve všech polohách a směrech bádání. Dávala by vzrušující možnost přímo sledovat všecko to vysoukávání poezie z české řeči, z české poezie, ze všeho, co lze nazvat alchymií moderního básnictví. Udělat řekněme Kapitoly z Holanovy poetiky by mohlo být jakousi zakladatelskou teorií získávanou z této poezie samotné. Ale při obrovském respektu k poetotvorné, estetickotvorné energii Holanových básnických strukturací se vždy znovu přistihuji při tom, že se všecko moje psaní o Holanovi soustřeďovalo hlavně na to, jak nám jeho poezie umožňuje jinak žít a vstupovat do skutečnosti, do našeho bytí v čase a prostoru. Mámivá „geometrie“ této obří poezie bude možná teprve napsána novým tisíciletím. [...]

Alegoria w czeskiej powieści historycznej lat 60. XX wieku

Author(s): Joanna Królak / Language(s): Polish Issue: 7 (10)/2017

The article concerns the problem of allegory in two Czech historical novels from the beginning and the end of the 60s of the twentieth century: {Kladivo na čarodějnice} by Václav Kaplický and {Tovaryšstvo ježišovo} by Jiři Šotola. Both novels are also considered to be important political ‘clearing accounts’ novels. Application of allegory as a method of reception allows us to answer the question about the participation of the reader in the setting up of allegory in the Czech prose of the twentieth century. Artykuł dotyczy problemu alegorii w dwu czeskich powieściach historycznych z początku i z końca lat 60. XX wieku: {Kladivo na čarodějnice}, Vaclava Kaplickiego i {Tovaryšstvo ježišovo} Jiřiego Sotoli. Obie powieści są uznawane także za ważne powieści rozrachunkowe. Zastosowanie alegorezy jako metody recepcji pozwala odpowiedzieć na pytanie o udział czytelnika w ustanawianiu alegorii w czeskiej prozie dwudziestowiecznej.

Alena Fialová: V souřadnicích mnohosti. Česká literatura první dekády jednadvacátého století v souvislostech a interpretacích.

Author(s): Petr Hrtánek,Roman Polách / Language(s): Czech Issue: 4/2015

Alena Fialová (ed.): V souřadnicích mnohosti. Česká literatura první dekády jednadvacátého století v souvislostech a interpretacích. Praha, Academia 2014. 817 stran.

Alex Goody: Technology, Literature and Culture

Author(s): David Vichnar / Language(s): Czech Issue: 6/2015

Alex Goody: Technology, Literature and Culture. Cambridge, Polity Press 2011. 193 strany

Alexander Kratochvil (ed.): Paměť a trauma pohledem humanitních věd. Komentovaná antologie

Author(s): Kamil Činátl / Language(s): Czech Issue: 3/2017

Alexander Kratochvil (ed.): Paměť a trauma pohledem humanitních věd. Komentovaná antologie. Praha, Ústav pro českou literaturu/Akropolis 2015. 341 strana.