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Copyright of Slovenská Literatúra: Revue Pre Literárnu Vedu is the property of Institute of Slovak Literature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Knihovna is the property of Library Institute of the Czech National Library and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article presents the hitherto unknown letters the Czech writer Egon Hostovský (1908–1973) wrote to the Norwegian writer, critic, essayist, editor and translator Sigurd Hoel (1890–1960). These letters date from 1949–1956 and are preserved in the National Library of Norway in Oslo. Not only do they provide interesting information about Hostovský’s efforts to publish his works in Scandinavia, but they also testify to a close friendship between the two writers. The article also presents two letters by Graham Greene (1904–1991) which are also preserved in the file containing Hostovský’s letters in the Norwegian National Library. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Slavica Litteraria is the property of Masaryk University, Faculty of Arts and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Przeklady Literatur Slowianskich is the property of Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Slaskiego and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Bohemistyka is the property of Instytut Filologii Slowianskiej Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Knihovna is the property of Library Institute of the Czech National Library and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study commemorates the last two editors-in-chief of the Lumír literary maga- zine, whose lives and works have so far been largely neglected in the history of Czech literature. The critic Štěpán Jež (1885--1970) began writing for Lumír while still at university, and during his long life he held a number of posts in the literature section of the Umělecká beseda (Art forum), in the Kruh českých spisovatelů (Czech writers' circle) and on the editorial board of Lumír. In autumn 1939, a member of the younger generation, Josef Hobzek (1908--1989), took over from Jež as editor- in-chief of Lumír. It was assumed that with his training as a lawyer he would be better suited for official negotiations with the Nazi German authorities occupying the country. Hobzek, brought up in circles close to the upper levels of the Roman Catholic hierarchy, shared their conservative views of politics and the arts. In the Roman Catholic press he devoted himself to promoting the intellectual legacy of the historian Josef Pekař (1870--1937), even marrying one of Pekař's relations towards the end of the Second World War. Hobzek and Jež devoted most of their professional ener\y to the required organizational and editorial work, which helped to create the cultural environment and literary operations, but remained in many respects concealed from the general public. Later, after the Second World War, they no longer had an opportunity to realize publicly their literary ambitions or apply their broad learning and interests. In the new circumstances of Communist Czechoslovakia they were forced to give up their plans as writers and editors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Was Ignác Cornova’s contribution to Czech-language literature only that of a historian? In the 1770s and 1780s he also happened to be the most acclaimed poet in Bohemia. Of the many reactions to Cornova’s work from German and Czech writers, this study focuses on Nábožné písně pro katolického měšťana a sedláka k veřejným a domácím službám božím (Religious Songs for the Catholic Townsman and Countryman for Use in Public and Domestic Divine Service, 1791) by Václav Stach, with a verse dedication to Cornova. It emphasises that under the Habsburg monarchy the genre of religious songs and hymns was also a platform for forming a new readership and literary public, providing a vehicle for writers such as Michael Denis, Ignaz Cornova, Johann Peter Hofmann and Václav Stach himself for creative experimentation and a mutually beneficial communication of their work to the public. In this context, our study examines the conceptual and aesthetic links between Stach and the poetic models of Ignác Cornova. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Bohemistyka is the property of Instytut Filologii Slowianskiej Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study describes the origin and development of the friendship between the literary scholar Jan Mukařovský (1891-1975) and the writer Vladislav Vančura (1891-1942). Mukařovský's interpretations of Vančura's literary works are the main focus of the study. Both Mukařovský's published works and texts that were never published (e.g. university lectures) are analysed. On the basis of archival research, the author of the study proves that Mukařovský analysed Vančura's work much earlier than he published his first-ever work on Vančura in 1934. In the course of the 1940s to 1960s, Mukařovský published many texts on Vančura in which he remembered Vančura as a friend, poet, Communist and anti-fascist activist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Bohemistyka is the property of Instytut Filologii Slowianskiej Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Slavica Litteraria is the property of Masaryk University, Faculty of Arts and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Przeklady Literatur Slowianskich is the property of Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Slaskiego and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article deals with the issues of introducing web resources into subject literary bibliographies. This issue is at first analyzed on the general level as the methodological challenge of online sources systematic introduction into the context of managing current bibliography and then case studies follow targeted on specific problems of internet material bibliography treatment. Firstly one discusses the issues related to bibliographical processing of online documents (web pages, online journals, etc.), which are in complex and variable relations to those available in print. An attention is paid to the methodological issues, in particular providing criteria of web resources selection. The need for archivization of bibliographically processed materials which we assess as the crucial element of any systematic bibliographical processing of Internet materials will be also highlighted. In the following part study presents the preliminarily classification of the new specific genres of internet content: blogs and literary forums. Firstly the Polish literary blogosphere is analysed and preliminarily typology of this document type is introduced. Later a phenomenon of literary forums is taken into consideration. Based on an example of poetry forum Nieszuflada.pl more detailed quantitative analysis of this resource type is given and issues of authorship attribution in the digital environment are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Bohemistyka is the property of Instytut Filologii Slowianskiej Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The study focuses on Bronislav Wellek, Adolph Donath, Camill Hoffmann, Oskar Wiener and Otto Hauser and their translations and articles on modern Czech literature published in the German journal Aus fremden Zungen (1891–1910). This fortnightly established by Joseph Kürschner dealt exclusively with foreign literature. Its openness to all kinds of literary currents and little-known minor literatures was unique within the system of German literary journals. A comparison indicates the key role played by mediators. The primary requirement for their activity was multilingualism, and it turns out that in the case of all the figures under consideration, language did not necessarily have the nationally symbolic significance ascribed by politics, and their identity basically did not depend on their use of one language or another. The progress and success of this mediation was not just decided by the literary standard of the translation, but all five translators were concerned to improve the standard of translation, as well as to change the approach to translation in general. The choice of text and its succeeded publication was determined by the involvement of the mediators in the Czech and German literary context. Hence Bronislav Wellek focused primarily on translations and interpretations of poetry by Jaroslav Vrchlický and J. S. Machar, whom he knew personally and who also introduced him to their own literary and intellectual circles. It was thanks to Vrchlický that he printed his translations in Eduard Albert’s anthologies Poesie aus Böhmen (1893–1895). Machar was responsible for other translations, e.g. Hilbert’s drama Vina, which Hermann Bahr was to help promote in the German-language sphere. Between 1896 and 1898, Adolph Donath attempted to build up his position as mediator between the Moderní revue circle and some representatives of Viennese modernism (e.g. Karl Kraus, Peter Altenberg and Felix Rappaport). For Aus fremden Zungen he translated an impressionistic short story by Luisa Ziková Bílý květ (White Flower). In a fivepart series and an accompanying study modern Czech prose (J. Zeyer, V. Mrštík, F. X. Svoboda, J. K. Šlejhar and R. Svobodová) was presented by Camill Hoffmann and Oskar Wiener. Their mediation activities were based on direct relations with Prague Czech authors of the youngest generation, on whom Hoffmann also focused in his articles for other German journals, though in Aus fremden Zungen he was concerned with surveying the modernist work of the 1890s. Samples of Czech prose were followed on by translations from modern Czech lyric poetry (O. Březina, A. Sova, K. Hlaváček and V. Dyk) written by Otto Hauser. This polyglot and translator from numerous languages was a different kind of Viennese mediator. In contrast to Wellek and Hoffmann, Hauser was only in sporadic correspondence with Sova and Březina. His literary assessment of their poetry was based on his broad knowledge of contemporary European poetry, including minor literatures (such as Danish, Dutch and Croatian) and as such is of importance. These examples show that literary mediation is a complex rapprochement of variously defined and construed contexts, which have their reflected and unrealized limits.

The article examines vampires in Czech Decadent literature as polyvalent symbols that stand simultaneously for culture as a vampiric force and for decadence as a poisonous and infectious phenomenon. Vampires can also be associated with homosexuality, particularly in the work of Jiří Karásek ze Lvovic. In addition, they represent the power of the Austro-Hungarian Empire which had been draining the blood of Bohemia for centuries, leaving Prague a “dead city”, as well as the Czechs’ resistance to their subaltern status through a poisonous entropy that destroys not only the oppressors but also Czechs themselves. As such, Czech vampires have their counterpart in barbarians, who threaten to destroy the empire from without.

The article focuses on Milan Kundera’s works from the mid-1950s to the early 1960s, particularly on Poslední máj (The Last of May) in the versions of 1955 and 1961, and Kundera’s first Art of the Novel (Umění románu), a study on the works of Vladislav Vančura, finished in 1959. The article argues that these works are interesting not only from the point of view of Kundera’s then Marxist-Leninist political stance, but also with respect to genre theory and practise as it can be retraced in his writing before the appearance of the famous novels of the mid-1960s. The article demonstrates that the relationship between lyricism and the novel in these early works exhibits many features which are to be found in his later work. The novel takes up a privileged position — albeit with a different and more explicitly political, party-bound motivation, representing the “great epic” required by “the people”. The article also contains reflections on Kundera’s role in the Czechoslovak Stalinists cult of Julius Fučík, related to the genre issues mentioned insofar as Fučík is placed by Kundera in the same category as Vančura in the first Art of the Novel.

This article presents a research project on the history of mentalities in Czech culture of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century. The project analyses textbooks for the teaching of Czech literature for secondary schools. It focuses in particular on the excerpts from the literary works and analyses their potential for the learners to acquire cultural and historical knowledge as well as personal skills. These excerpts are conceptualized here as Denkbilder, a term that has been used repeatedly in German literature studies recently to define short prose texts that stimulate imagination as well as reflection. Responding to the high number of literary works from world literature in the Czech textbooks analysed for the project, this article addresses the contrasting presentations of one classic of German literature, Erich Maria Remarque’s 1929 novel All Quiet on the Western Front (Im Westen nichts Neues). It illustrates how a single literary work can be presented in different ways in literature textbooks, offering the learners different approaches for relating to the text and activating their cognitive and imaginative resources.

This study deals with the hitherto little known correspondence between writers Jakub Deml (1878-1961) and Jaroslav Durych (1886-1962), which has only been partially researched. This is an extensive collection of correspondence of importance to both writers, which took place over two periods (1906-1909 anda1916-1959). The letters from the first period document both their translation collaboration with the old Imperial publisher Josef Florian and their own work, as well as their opinions on the contemporary literary and social scene. However, they also record the first substantial disputes between the two writers, primarily involving their different conceptions of Catholic faith and their view of poet Otokar Březina. During the second period Deml and Durych exchanged mail more intensively around the late 1910s and the early 1920s. This study presents their collaboration on Deml's Šlépěje (Footprints) and summarizes the reasons for its termination. The final part focuses on the sharp controversy provoked by Deml's book Mé svědectví o Otokaru Březinovi (My Testimony on Otokar Březina, 1931). Both writers publicly engaged in these polemics on the pages of their own publicity platforms, resulting in the end of their friendship for a long time. They did not resume their correspondence until almost twenty years later. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What is noticeable in the 1920s, when Czech modern poetry and Vítězslav Nezval in particular express their avant-garde quests through the felicitous poetic program, is the aesthetic distancing from the romantic melancholy and respectively from the interpretation of landscape as an object of contemplation and a mediator between the human soul and the universe. The preference of poetism for civilization diversity and metropolitan dynamics and its superficial disregard for nature are the reasons why this aspect of Vítězslav Nezval's poetry has remained outside the field of literary research so far. The main objective of this paper is to discover and outline the manifestations of artistic treatment of nature in Nezval's poetry even when he denies its place in modern poetry in general. The paper focuses on those transformational processes of anti-mimetic nature through which the image of the landscape is no longer perceived as a reflection of the real entities of nature but as a fictional entity based on the principle of collage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study observes the process whereby the Czech cultural scene was redefined during the first few months of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. In an attempt to protect Czech culture and to preserve the autonomy of Czech institutions as proclaimed by the German occupiers, society deliberately undertook centralization and self-regulatory measures. The National Partnership (Národní souručenství), which 97% of the male population joined during spring 1939, was initiated as part of its internal policy by the Cultural Council, which had had programmatic continuity since November 1938. Under the "new conditions" it was meant to become the autonomous, proactive working and advisory centre for the National Partnership's cultural and educational work. Although it had taken part in the organization of such spontaneous demonstrations as the second burial of Karel Hynek Mácha, it was soon arranging a number of promotional events in an attempt to centralize, control and regulate the cultural scene. In its cultural and political discourse it highlighted the topoi of the good Czech book, which became a symbol of resistance and a means for preserving national identity. The most successful promotional event used by the Cultural Council to take control of the entire spectrum of artistic and cultural life within the Protectorate was the December Czech Book Month organized in towns and rural areas. The preparations were strictly centralized and controlled, and it was only possible to exhibit books previously listed by the Cultural Council. "A good Czech book" became a cult object, on the basis of which Protectorate society was newly defined, legitimizing it in the face of overbearing German culture and bolstering its resistance. The event also resulted in economic assistance to the graphic and book industries, while redefining the Czech literary scene and the totalitarization of Czech society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The paper focuses on the topic of humor in literature, its development, its theoretical concept, as well as library applications. It defines this phenomenon, follows its historical development, but primarily focuses on its current perception and place in the Czech literature. Presents a basic overview of the representation of literature associated with humor in the library collections of selected institutions and subject him to the topic of bibliotherapy and bibliopedagogy as manifestations of social and educationally oriented contemporary librarianship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though not large in scope, the correspondence of František Kašpar and Jindřich Šimon Baar from the years 1917C1923 is interesting. It serves as a reminder that there is in the archives of the Literature Archive of the Museum of Czech Literature a wide range of personal papers of Czech Catholic and Evangelical clerty -- of authors, philosophers, theologians, teachers, mathematicians, historians, archivists, art-historians, ethnographers, translators, editors, collectors etc. In 2016, the papers of František Kašpar have been acquired. The correspondence offers information about the then Catholic press and especially about the magazine Týn, which was being published between 1917 and 1921 and in which Kašpar worked first as an author and later as an editor. Of value are also insights into and assessments of the situation within the Church, of Kašpar's colleagues within the clerty (mainly the criticism of Karel Dostál-Lutinov and of Moravian Church circles) as well as of Church dignitaries (mainly Baar's views and insights concerning the then Prague archbishop Maria Pavel Josef Antonín, count Huyn). Besides that, the correspondence is interwoven with the personal friendship of the two men linked by their love of literature and writing. František Kašpar, by ten years J. Š. Baar's junior, does repeatedly emphasize in his letters to friends how important and stimulating it was for him that Baar appreciated his poems. However, as the letters progress it is impossible not to glimpse between the lines the big difference between their characters and their views. This difference deepens, indeed becomes polarizing especially with the historical development following the establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic. While Baar follows the path of public engagement and reforms, Kašpar remains on conservative Catholic positions, which suited him. Eventually, this polarization leads to the termination of their corresondence in 1923. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on the issues surrounding postwar reflections of Protectorate literature and its changing image as formed in individual periods by the Czech literary public and by literary and cultural historians. This is based on postwar efforts to degrade Protectorate literary output as a non-systemic anomaly brought about by foreign pressure and to redraw it to include previously unpublished output that was written despite the restrictions of the regime. However, it also points out that the literary figures, schools and groups that were denounced as collaborationist by the Syndicate of Writers had formed a part of domestic discourse since at least the 1930s. Hence the punishment of particular individuals was also a verdict on a particular school of thought on society and culture. Thus the condemnation of Catholics, members of the Activists groups and those left-wing intellectuals who tended towards realism had a common denominator: it rejected any vision of the restoration of a binding Order, stemming either from a faith in God, a return to national traditions or a vision of Communism. The opposite was a defence of liberal democracy and associated relativism, as well as experimentation with modern and avant-garde art. The second part of the study follows the way this initial position altered after the arrival of the Communists, who shared a conviction with the Nazis that a new order could be forced upon the world. This exposition aims to show that postwar programmatic limitations on ideological opponents masked the fact that the 1950s spontaneously adopted much from the Protectorate, as well as to point out the coincidences and analogies at the level of literary life and poetics. The most significant proof of this was their endeavour to entirely invalidate opponents and their similar preference for conventional and didactic forms of art. The third section of this paper focuses on the subsequent political relaxation and the attempts at that time to rehabilitate at least some Protectorate artistic activities. It deals with the issue of the avant-garde, whose confrontation with the totalitarianism of the occupiers and the artistic conventions of the era were implicitly interpreted as a challenge that can also be associated with the artistic and social role of creative work at that time. However, it also follows the ongoing attempts to rehabilitate Catholic authors, either with the return of individuals or after 1989 with the defence of Catholicism as a standard school of thought. However, it sees a stumbling block in the issue of whether Catholic activities after Munich and during the occupation can be defended in the context of contemporary political and philosophical pluralism. The final section focuses on the post-1989 reevaluation, that is, whereas the postwar decade was dominated by a clear-cut polarity in values between 'us and them', i.e. the Czechs and the Germans, the victims and the culprits, during the post-November period there was more of a tendency to see 'us' as co-offenders, hence the previously rather neglected issue of Czech antisemitism has been foregrounded, as well as e.g. the restriction on 'trash literature' (read popular literature), which started under the Protectorate and continued thereafter. The primary emphasis on our own guilt shifts towards the direct connection between the cultural situation under the occupation and the subsequent situation, particularly after 1948. The overall ambition of this paper is to point out that an exposition of literature under the Protectorate should not be based on special-purpose semantic templates, but it should without bias examine the relationship between our current interpretational position and the original historical dimension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Slavica Litteraria is the property of Masaryk University, Faculty of Arts and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The study focuses on Bronislav Wellek, Adolph Donath, Camill Hoffmann, Oskar Wiener and Otto Hauser and their translations and articles on modern Czech literature published in the German journal Aus fremden Zungen (1891-1910). This fortnightly established by Joseph Kürschner dealt exclusively with foreign literature. Its openness to all kinds of literary currents and little-known minor literatures was unique within the system of German literary journals. A comparison indicates the key role played by mediators. The primary requirement for their activity was multilingualism, and it turns out that in the case of all the figures under consideration, language did not necessarily have the nationally symbolic significance ascribed by politics, and their identity basically did not depend on their use of one language or another. The progress and success of this mediation was not just decided by the literary standard of the translation, but all five translators were concerned to improve the standard of translation, as well as to change the approach to translation in general. The choice of text and its succeeded publication was determined by the involvement of the mediators in the Czech and German literary context. Hence Bronislav Wellek focused primarily on translations and interpretations of poetry by Jaroslav Vrchlický and J. S. Machar, whom he knew personally and who also introduced him to their own literary and intellectual circles. It was thanks to Vrchlický that he printed his translations in Eduard Albert's anthologies Poesie aus Böhmen (1893-1895). Machar was responsible for other translations, e.g. Hilbert's drama Vina, which Hermann Bahr was to help promote in the German-language sphere. Between 1896 and 1898, Adolph Donath attempted to build up his position as mediator between the Moderní revue circle and some representatives of Viennese modernism (e.g. Karl Kraus, Peter Altenberg and Felix Rappaport). For Aus fremden Zungen he translated an impressionistic short story by Luisa Ziková Bílý květ (White Flower). In a fivepart series and an accompanying study modern Czech prose (J. Zeyer, V. Mrštík, F. X. Svoboda, J. K. Šlejhar and R. Svobodová) was presented by Camill Hoffmann and Oskar Wiener. Their mediation activities were based on direct relations with Prague Czech authors of the youngest generation, on whom Hoffmann also focused in his articles for other German journals, though in Aus fremden Zungen he was concerned with surveying the modernist work of the 1890s. Samples of Czech prose were followed on by translations from modern Czech lyric poetry (O. Březina, A. Sova, K. Hlaváček and V. Dyk) written by Otto Hauser. This polyglot and translator from numerous languages was a different kind of Viennese mediator. In contrast to Wellek and Hoffmann, Hauser was only in sporadic correspondence with Sova and Březina. His literary assessment of their poetry was based on his broad knowledge of contemporary European poetry, including minor literatures (such as Danish, Dutch and Croatian) and as such is of importance. These examples show that literary mediation is a complex rapprochement of variously defined and construed contexts, which have their reflected and unrealized limits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on the ways the biblical story of John the Baptist's beheading took on a new significance during the latter half of the 19th century. The focus of interest was the figure of Salome, the daughter of Herodias, whose dance in front of the tetrarch Herod brought about John's death. Within the context of these works of world literature we shall follow the changes in the image of Salome in Czech literature, as our attention focuses on works representing various artistic schools. By examining works by such canonical authors as Jaroslav Vrchlický, Jiří Karásek ze Lvovic, Karel Hlaváček and Julius Zeyer, as well as less well-known writers, we shall attempt to present the various approaches to the biblical story, bearing in mind the realization of individual characters, the selection of the story segment that is stressed in the work, and the characteristic perspective whose use may affect the interpretation of the story and the figure of the dancer herself. By means of Algirdas Julien Greimas's pair of actants (i.e. subject and object) we can distinguish the role played by Salome in individual narratives. We shall attempt to specify the basic trio of forms - Salome in the role of object, subject and absent within the narrative - in order to be able to depict the primary realizations of the character of Herodias's daughter that are possible in art. Within the context of these distinctions, Salome emerges not only as a mute intermediary for her mother or a femme fatale, but also in less frequent forms in which the extent of the mother's influence on her dancing daughter is of substantial importance, as is Salome's realization in the form of a fille fatale, who does not even need the notorious dance to achieve her fatefulness and her influence on the tetrarch Herod. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The end of the 1870S and 1880S saw a development stage in 19th century Czech literature which used to be traditionally characterized as the Lumir-Ruch generation stage. This primarily involved poetic work represented by prominent authors who were the principal contributors to the literary journals Ruch and Lumír, which from the end of the 1860s and the first half of the 1870s focused on the main figures from this generation: Sládek, Čech, Vrchlický and Zeyer. A more recent view of this stage was opened up by an anthology from Moravian Bohemist Jaromír Fryčer, which came out under the title Neznámý Parnas - Unknown Parnassus (1988). It analysed the work of French poets who in the latter half of the i86os appeared in the Parnasse contemporain journal and took up a critical stance towards Romantic poetry, due to its excessive formal and intellectual laxity, confronting it with the formal order and intellectual sophistication of their artistic works, as well as aesthetic discipline. In the Czech context these stylistic features attracted the attention of several younger poets and prose writers, who began to place emphasis in their work on aesthetic factors, which manifested themselves in an effort to achieve refinement in artistic form and intellectual depth and to expand artistic imagery. No matter how much their work differed (e.g. as regards their approach to subject matter- hence the traditional difference between the "nationalists" and "cosmopolitans"), common features can be found among them that are characteristic of them all (e.g. a stress on an aesthetic approach to form and material), presenting the opportunity to include them all under the common term Parnassianism. From a literary history standpoint it describes a particular transition stage that opened the way to modernism - symbolism, decadence and Secession. The term "Parnassianism" is used in Czech criticism of the period, particularly by F. X. Salda. With the loss of a demand for a specific aesthetic standpoint over time it acquired a pejorative sense and came to be understood as a formally stilted stylistic artism, and a byword for outmodedness. It is sometimes identified without justification with neo-Romanticism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study deals with the characteristic features of Čep's style and their functions at the moment the author retreats into the anonymity of writing and distorts their primary form. The study is based on the detective story, one part of which Jan Čep writes at the behest of the publisher Bedřich Fučík as part of his promotional activities. An analysis of the author's narrative techniques shows how Čep simultaneously abandons and confirms the formal and idea-based element of his writing, as anonymity enables him to confrontationally hone several of his views regarding the criticism of pragmatism and liberalism at that time. At the same time ongoing analysis of his positions and motives indicates that the apparent playfulness of the text conceals within itself a different form of irreconcilable position and a confirmation of Čep's conception of the aesthetic purpose of a literary text, a conception which determines Čep's position among the authors of modern literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article first introduces the reader to the topic of the aestheticism of Decadent Symbolism by outlining the theatricality of the nineteenth century. It describes Aestheticism as a path to a new authenticity and therefore also to ethics, with the aim of transforming life into a work of art, subordinated to the ideal of beauty. It then discusses Jiří Karásek ze Lvovic's (1871-1951) strategies of auto-stylization, particularly his desire to live ambivalently, and thus multiply and vary his appearance. At the same time, the article supports this endeavour with analyses of Karásek's use of intertextuality and a carefully planned strategy of communication in his literature. It interprets Karásek's gallery as a monument to its founder, providing information (as do his works of literature and other activity) about his personality, and it analyses two levels of the collection in detail, providing a picture of him and his impenetrable multiplicity of faces - namely, a set of books containing dedications to Karásek and a collection of his portraits by various painters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study deals with Vladimír Macura, who went down in the history of Czech literature as a literary scholar and prose writer, i.e. primarily as the author of the book monograph Znamení zrodu (Signs of Birth), which fundamentally transformed Czech perceptions of the National Revival, and as the creator of a number of prose works, particularly the tetralogy of historical novels Ten, který bude (He Who Will Be). However, material housed at the Museum of Czech Literature shows that Macura was literarily active from his early childhood and became involved in Czech literature from the time of his secondary school studies in Ostrava, not only as a talented poet, but also as the co-founder of a completely original artistic school called Ismism. Hence the aim of this study is to document his early work from the first half of the 1960s and to indicate just where Macura is already „himself" at that time and also which features in his later literary activities are rooted in his human and psychological disposition, which does not fundamentally change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This series of articles spotlights the Retrospective Bibliography of Czech Literature 1770-1945, the most valuable collection of material being kept and worked on at the ASCR Institute of Czech Literature. Over almost sixty years, 525 journal and newspaper titles published in Czech or German on the territory of the Czech lands were excerpted for it, this large-scale excerption range covering not only reflections and studies of Czech literature, as in the case of subsequent bibliographical bases for Czech literary studies for the period from the latter half of the 2oth century to the present, but also fiction reprints including translations, while in addition to Czech literature, texts from the literatures of other nations were also excerpted, as well as texts from associated subjects, particularly journalism, history, theatre, drama studies and the like. Thanks to its size (almost 1.7 million excerpt cards) and chronological range (1770-1945; with follow-on bases up to the present), as well as its elaborate processing methodology, it is hard to find an equivalent among Czech specialist bibliographies or literary studies bibliographies in neighbouring countries. The three articles published in Česká literatura (3/2013), are meant to present the Retrospective Bibliography and its recently completed digitization project in greater detail to the specialist public. The initial article by Daniel Řehák presents the Retrospective Bibliography as a card catalogue, both from historical and methodological standpoints, while the subsequent text by Vojtěch Malínek focuses on presenting its digitized form in the RETROBI system, stressing its capacity for use by the professional public, and the final article by Eliška Davidová briefly presents the literary studies article bibliography situation in neighbouring countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to present the literary studies community amongst others with the current state of the national retrospective bibliography and related issues, and to initiate a debate on the subject. The introduction defines the term „national retrospective bibliography“ and subsequently presents a comparative of European retrospective bibliographies, their electronic processing and the provision of access to them, with particular attention being paid to Central Europe. Attention then focuses on the Czech national retrospective bibliography, its structure (i.e. its division into separate individual projects) and in particular its current technical and methodological issues, for which a definition is attempted and a possible solution is offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]