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Autofictions and memoirs about growing up in late socialism have proliferated in Czech as well as in other postsocialist Eastern European literatures. These retrospective texts are often tinged with nostalgia and infused with irony and humour. Two of the most popular texts of this genre in the Czech Republic are Irena Dousková’s autofictional books Hrdý Budžes [B. Proudew] and Oněgin byl Rusák [Onegin Was a Rusky]. The Czech author writes about growing-up in a non-conformist family dealing with everyday life in socialist Czechoslovakia. After discussing Dousková’s books as autofiction the article will take a closer look at the poetics of childhood autofictions and their contribution to cultures of remembering socialism in comparison to autobiographies. It will discuss the ways how writing about childhood creates a specific socialist identity through scarcity, ingenuity, and working with/against restraints and the way humour is used to transmit difficult memories.

The last two decades have seen a rising interest in the Holocaust and the expulsion of ethnic Germans after World War II in Czech literature. Novels by Hana Androníková, Radka Denemarková, Magdalena Platzová, Kateřina Tučková, and Jáchym Topol share a quest for a new poetics of remembrance. Informed by contemporary discussions about Czech memory politics, these novels are characterised by spectral visions of Germans and Jews alike, a dichotomy of trauma and nostalgia, and an understanding of Czech history as postcatastrophically entangled and thus calling for multidirectional forms of remembrance. In this respect, literary memorial forms compensate for the absence of other memorial forms addressing these topics through a transnational lens. The interaction of different historical points of view is achieved by a time frame extending from the war to the present day and stressing the intercultural dynamics of Czechs, Jews, and Germans retroactively. In order to illustrate this entanglement, authors make use of popular genres, such as romance, and create texts shaped by genre fluidity, memory theory, documentary practices, and concepts of transnationality.

In this commentary, we will limit ourselves to presenting the reception of Czech literature in Poland and Polish literature in the Czech Republic in the year 2018. Czech and Polish literature reaches its readers across their respective borders in several ways: via translations of books by well-known and esteemed writers; through representatives of the younger generation; and as translations of prose and poetry published in magazines. The reception of Polish and Czech literature has been very positive; specifically, there is a growing interest among Polish readers in Czech literary offerings.

После падения коммунистического режима чешское диссидентское движение участвовало в создании новых эго-документов, отсылающих к интерпретации социалистического прошлого. В статье данная проблематика представлена на примере двух мемуарных диссидентских текстов. Речь идёт о life story актрисы Власты Храмостовой и о путевых заметках писательницы Эды Крисеовой. Данные саморефлексивные мемуары являются сознательно конструируемым речевым актом защиты памяти и культурного взаимодействия с инакомыслием. Их мышление, сформировавшееся в диссидентской среде, сосредоточенной на необходимости быть человеком «духовным» (Я. Паточка) и участвующим в общественной деятельности, представляет собой тенденцию в чешской литературе рубежа тысячелетий, когда снова обсуждалось участие в литературе с целью «исправить» интерпретацию прошлого, особенно 50-х гг. ХХ в. и периода «нормализации». Методологическая база исследования основана на трудах М. Альбвакса и П. Рикёра.

The report of The Leipzig Book Fair 2019, written by students, describes the experiences of The Leipzig Book Fair, his history and current trends (Women and Literature) with focus on the host country Czech Republic.

The following paper is based on the concept of literature and mediality of memory (Astrid Erll) which deals with the function of literary texts in creating and maintaining collective memory. Using these methodological incentives, it focuses on the determination and characterization of ways in which Czech literary works co-create and preserve the memory of the 20th century Hlucin Region, as well as, vice versa, the ways involved in suppressing some layers of memory and oblivion. The area described is selected, inter alia, because of its discontinuous and multi-layered memory influenced by geopolitical changes in Central Europe. The study thus provides a more detailed view of how artistic literature, as a medium of collective memory, can function within the phenomena of the so-called abused memory and memory work (Paul Ricoeur).

The image of Jan Hus’s death in literary and film worksThe article shows, on selected examples from Czech literature and film, different images of the Czech reformer’s death. The fundamental texts of this article are the testimonies of two witnesses of that event: a member of Hus’s escort, Peter from Mladoňovice, and a burgher from Konstantz, Ulrich Rychental. Confesional dependent visions, that both of them were creating, initiated two traditions in the perception of Jan Hus: as a martyr and as a heretic. The vision of Mladoňovic dominated thinking about Hus in Czech society until the beginning of the recatholization. During the 19th century it was also supported by historism typical for the National Revival epoch F. Palacký, Dějiny naroda ceskeho, persisted in journalism, literature, art and, after some modifications, operated until the middle of the 20th century O. Vavra, Jan Hus. Later literary and film productions E. Kantůrkova, J. Svoboda, Jan Hus take into account Rychental’s testimony, so the one-sided picture of the death of the Bethlehem preacher gained a new dimension. Literarni a filmove obrazy smrti Jana HusaClanek na vybraných přikladech z ceske literatury a filmu ukazuje dva různe obrazy smrti ceskeho reformatora. Zakladnimi texty jsou zpravy dvou ocitých svědků udalosti: clena Husova doprovodu Petra z Mladoňovic a kostnickeho měsťana Ulricha Richentala. Konfesijně podminěne obrazy, ktere oba atoři kreuji, stoji na pocatku dvou rodicich se tradic v pojimani Husa: jako mucednika a jako kaciře. V ceskem prostředi dominoval až do pocatku rekatolizace Mladoňovicův obraz, který byl v 19. stoleti převzat obrozeneckým dějepisectvim F. Palacký, Dějiny naroda ceskeho a nasledně publicistikou, literaturou a výtvarným uměnim a v různých modifikacich přetrval zhruba do poloviny 20. stoleti O. Vavra, Jan Hus. Pozdějsi literarni a filmova produkce E. Kantůrkova, J. Svoboda, Jan Hus zohledňuje take Richentalovo svědectvi, cimž do te doby jednostranný obraz smrti betlemskeho kazatele ziskal novou dimenzi.

FACES OF AUTOCRACY IN CZECH LITERARY DYSTOPIASThe paper deals with the phenomenon of dystopia in Czech literature before 1989. The main aim of the article is to present some similiar views on totalitarian power and its influence on the individual in Czech novels and short stories: Datum narození nula by Ludmila Freiová, Poselství pro Agla Mathona by Ondřej Neff, Utopie, nejlepší verze by Ivan Kmínek and Maso by Martin Harníček. The purpose of the paper was also to show how in the authors’ visions of autocratic states, administration is taking control over ordinary people and what kind of tools it uses to manipulate them: terror, self-censorship or various addictions.

The article focuses on comparative analysis of aesthetic philosophical concepts of Czech and Russian symbolism at the end of 19th and the beginning of 20th century. The attention is predominantly paid to interpretation of selected theoretical studies and essayistic work by Czech and Russian followers of decadent-symbolist and symbolist aesthetics. In this article we are showing inner connections in genesis of aesthetic-philosophical system, which, in context of East and West-Slavonic literatures, represents gradual heading from decadent-symbolic aesthetics to broader trans-cultural syntheses. Above all, we follow gradual and fluent evolution from the concept of autonomous model of beauty to the principal of theurgy, which understands art as a cosmogonic power. In the first decadent-symbolist phase, Czech and Russian literature were carried by overcoming the reality by refusing of materialistic existence and by the way to spiritual visions and dreaming. The world of art had become a defence of clear aesthetic values, transcendent desire and metaphysical dream with sense of secret of human life, found in extra-sensual sphere of spiritual world of human. In aesthetic theories of both, Czech and Russian followers of decadent-symbolist aesthetics, we can find gradual tendencies to overcome decadent approaches to the integral understanding of the work of art as a high phase of symbolism. However, that was fully defined later by next art generation who started understanding art creating in its broader meaning as theurgy, using the words of the Russian philosopher V. Solovjov. Work of art and essayistic work of followers of this this phase of symbolism is represented by the idea of theurgy, idea of art which possesses mystic power, the idea of “all-human” art together with cognitive act. Art is seen mostly as a complex way of thinking and understanding of the world and the way of existence there. As the most important thing it was operated with finding of new perceptive ways and expressing and reaching the state of existence when the artistic images would not only evoke the impression of beauty but, at the same time they would work as the means of cognition.

Not only bread dumplings. Czech cuisine in the literary representationsCzech literature is often connected with the appreciation of the quotidian life. This opinion may be regarded as incorrect or inequitable because of its cliched nature and for its avoiding intensified interpretation, but it must be considered also in critical manner in a case of attempt to define the axiological and cultural basis of our southern neighbours. Culinary motifs — integrally creating the picture of the individual and collective identity — are strongly represented in this literature in which they either illustrate the typical Czech modus vivendi or conceptualize the constancy and role of the national tradition. Sometimes these motifs are also used for attempts of contesting the main components of the cultural heritage. The varied representations of cuisine recipes, foods, preparing of dishes, ways of consumption quite often returns in Czech literature and their semantic ability transcend the simply mimetic reflection of the everyday customs. Nejen knedliky. Ceska kuchyně jako objekt literarni reprezentace Ceska literatura je nezřidka spojovana se snahou přisuzovat hodnotu různým aspektům každodenniho života. Nezavisle na výstižnosti a směrodatnosti tohoto — ve sve podstatě schematickeho, castecně nespravedliveho a vyhýbajiciho se hlubsim exegezim — nazoru, by bylo třeba jej zohlednit alespoň v kriticke perspektivě při pokusu definovat axiologickou tvař tvorby nasich jižnich sousedů. Kulinarni temata — integralně spoluvytvařejici obraz individualni i kolektivni každodennosti — se v ni objevuji jaksi přirozeným způsobem a představuji z jedne strany odraz standartniho ceskeho modus vivendi a z druhe strany zase urcuji trvalost a přitažlivou silu narodni tradice, ale nejednou take svědci o pokusech o jeji překonani. Různorode reprezentace kulinarii předpisů, pokrmů, jejich připravy a konzumace se opětovně vyskytuji v ceske literatuře a jejich významový a semantický naboj dalece překracuje „prostý” mimetický odraz každodenniho zvyku.

The work Identity in Czech literary genres: national, territorial, cultural or historical? is an attempt at providing an answer to the title question by describing the conditions in which the characteristic features of Czech literary genres emerged and were amplified during the Czech national revival in the first half of the 19th century.

The author looks at Havel’s The Power of the Powerless in the context of Czech twentieth-century political fiction and the criticism that his writing and political activity has received. He also introduces other works, essays and plays, by the author that aid the assessment of statements made in The Power of the Powerless. The last quarter of the article discusses Havel and New Age ideas and endeavors to look at The Power of the Powerless in that light, but also to understand how a person who argued most of his life against the elements of ochlocracy in his own country could in spiritual matters become something of an ochlocrat himself.

The article is concerned with the generic specifics of the romaneto, a literary mode established by Czech writer Jakub Arbes, taking as its vantage point the way in which fantastic storylines operate within it. Arbes’s romanettos can be characterized by the interplay of gothic writing and science fiction. The study focuses on his most wellknown romanetto Newton’s Brain (Newtonův mozek). The analysis aims at a comparative investigation of the stolen brain motif related to the popular story of Einstein’s stolen brain and its literary repercussions. Artykuł dotyczy wyznaczników romaneto – gatunku literackiego zapoczątkowanego przez czeskiego pisarza Jakuba Arbesa – przyjmując za punkt wyjścia sposób, w jaki rozwijają się w nim fantastyczne fabuły. Romaneta Arbesa charakteryzuje wzajemne oddziaływanie powieści gotyckiej i science fiction. Artykuł koncentruje się na najbardziej znanym romaneto Mózg Newtona (Newtonův mozek). Analiza skupia się na porównawczym rozpatrywaniu motywu ukradzionego mózgu w relacji do historii o ukradzionym mózgu Ensteina i jej literackich reperkusjach.

Growing up marked by trauma in Jiři Kratochvil’s, Uprostřed noci zpěv and Magdalena Tulla’s, Wloskie szpilkiThe process of political change began in Czechoslovakia at the end of 1989, a few months after the so-called Polish Round Table Talks, and after the events in Hungary, East Germany or Bulgaria, foretelling the political transformations in those countries. Poles and Czechs are nations steeped in history, whose rhythm is defined by traumas, many of which still await their artistic disarmament. Czech history is completely different than that of Poles. As a result of the tangled history, Czech and Polish national identities are not fully defined. The key objective of the proposed paper is to examine how the contemporary Polish and Czech writers confront their totalitarian heritage. We would like to focus on the works of a Mora­vian author Jiři Kratochvil b. 1940 in Brno, who is undervalued and barely known in Poland, and of a Polish writer Magdalena Tulla b. 1955. As a matter of fact, Jiři Kratochvil was truly discovered in the Czech Republic only after November 1989.Взросление в тени исторической травмы в повести Иржи Кратохвила Uprostřed noci zpěv и Магдалены Тулли Wloskie szpilkiПроцесс политических преобразований начался в Чехословакии в конце 1989 года, спустя несколько месяцев после польских переговоров т. наз. круглого стола и после событий в Венгрии, ГДР или Болгарии, которые предвещали политико-режимные трансформации в этих странах. Поляки и чехи — это народы, погруженные в историю, а ее ритм в польском и чешском мышлении диктуют травмы. Многие из них еще предстоит обезвредить при помощи инструментов искусства. Чешская история во многом отличается от нашей. По причине непростой истории чешская и польская национальные идентичности не получили своего четкого определения. Основной целью предлагаемого доклада является исследование того, как современные польские и чешские писатели сводят счеты с тоталитарным наследием. Главное внимание будет уделено творчеству моравского писателя Иржи Кратохвила 1940 г.р., Брно, автора малоизвестного в Польше, а также польской писательницы Магдалены Тулли 1955 г.р.. Иржи Кратохвил и в самой Чехии приобрел признание только после ноября 1989 года.

Between ennoblement and depreciation. Ideological codes of senility in the ninenteenth century Czech literature the case of Karel Vaclav Rais Interpretations of senility change in time. Successive periods of culture create codes of its description and evaluation on their own. Czech literature which from the very beginning of the nineteenth century was connected with the communication of the ideological, social and political senses of the National Revival and which was treated as the most important instrument of projecting and implementing the great collective ideas, was also directed into including these ideas in all fields of life. The glorification of senility, either as the existential category or the synonym of experience and wisdom was for the first time demonstrated in Božena Němcova’s novel Babicka. The high status of this masterpiece caused the many returns of the category of senility in Czech fiction. One of them is Karel Vaclav Rais prose Pantata Bezousek which initiates the discussion on the actual function of the old men/women in contemporary Czech society.Mezi nobilitaci adepreciaci. Ideologicke kody vnimani staři vceske literatuře připad Karla Vaclava RaiseVnimani staři se měni v case. Každa nasledujici epocha vytvaři vlastni kody jeho popisu a valorizace. Ceska literatura, ktere je od 19. stoleti přisuzovana funkce nositelky ideologických/politických/spolecenských obsahů ajsou ji urcovany ukoly nezřidka klicove vprogramovani arealizaci velkých spolecenských projektů, usilovala opodřizeni vsech oblasti života těmto projektům. Apoteozu staři — jako důležite existencionalni kategorie azaroveň synonyma zkusenosti amoudrosti — vykonala vteto literatuře, jak znamo, poprve Božena Němcova v romanu Babicka. Nepochybna autorita tohoto romanu způsobila, že tato kategorie byla cetně aschuti využivana, přicemž ji byly přisuzovany rozmanite funkce s využitim různých valorizacnich nastrojů. Karel Vaclav Rais se napřiklad v romanu Pantata Bezousek 1894 titulni postavou „moudreho venkovskeho starce” vraci kdiskuzi na tema nejdůležitějsich identitnich předpokladů Narodniho obrozeni aověřuje jejich aktualnost vmoderni spolecenske realitě konce 19. stoleti.

Forms of literary representation of age through changes in characters of old women in Czech short stories of 80s and 90s of the 19th centuryThe study deals with different representations of the character of old women in Czech literature of the second half of the nineteenth century. It focuses mainly on three short stories which show exceptof the literary image of old age also the proof of the vertical stratification of Czech literature of the end of the nineteenth century. The study also shows the literary controversy related to literary movements and intertextual relations. The latest short story which the study refers to is called Babiccin pohřeb and was written by Rudolf Karel Zahradka. It has a specific position in the context of thinking about the use of motifs associated with old age: not only could it be characterized as a subversive text due to the intertextual passages referring to Babicka by Božena Němcova, but it can be also identified as a proof of the penetration of the modernistic tendency in Czech literature.Obrazy literackich reprezentacji starości na podstawie postaci starej kobiety w opowiadaniach autorow z lat 80. i 90. XIX wiekuArtykul dotyczy sposobu reprezentacji postaci starej kobiety w literaturze czeskiej drugiej polowy XIX wieku. Autorka skupia swoją uwage zwlaszcza na opowiadaniach, ktore, oprocz literackiego obrazu starości, są rowniez wertykalną stratyfikacją czeskiej literatury konca XIX wieku, jej wewnetrznych dyskursywnych polemik i związkow intertekstualnych. Jako najbardziej interesujące jawi sie opowiadanie Rudolfa Karla Zahalki Babiccin pohřeb, ktore mozna, biorąc pod uwage związki intertekstualne, oznaczyc za tekst subwersyjny i pokazac na jego podstawie przenikanie do literatury czeskiej tendencji naturalistycznych.

Well before the publication of his first monograph, Jaroslav Spirk’s name was already familiar to many scholars of Portuguese and Slavonic translation studies. His doctoral dissertation, on which t...

La enseñanza de la literatura en las escuelas secundarias de la República Checa, contribuye de manera relevante a ofrecer nuevas perspectivas educativas a los jóvenes checos. En tal sentido, esta enseñanza funciona como atesoran en el mundo, desde la Odisea de Homero, por ejemplo, a través del drama Shakesperiano y Fausto de Goethe, a las novelas de Balzac o de Zola, a los autores del siglo XX que se dedicaron a la causa humanista desvelando las facetas ocultas de la existencia humana. El propósito de nuestra reflexión sobre temas interculturales es, en primer lugar, analizar la contribución de la lectura al nivel de conocimiento, proponer la posibilidad de utilizar textos literarios para demostrar hasta qué punto el diálogo entre culturas, está incluido en las propias obras, y, por último, considerar qué textos literarios contemporáneos a escala mundial podrían enriquecer de manera relevante la selección de libros recomendados a los jóvenes checos. La conclusión será una síntesis tratando de comparar la situación de los estudiantes checos con la de los jóvenes franceses. También se resalta el papel de la traducción no sólo en la enseñanza de la literatura, sino en el conocimiento del Otro. The teaching of literature in secondary schools in the Czech Republic (note that this is in the course of Czech literature courses and taught in Czech) contributes in a relevant way to open to young people new worlds. It works starting from the treasury of the world thought, Homer’s Odyssey for example through Shakespearean drama and Goethe’s Faust, to the novels by Balzac or by Zola, to the twentieth century authors who engaged in the humanist cause by unveiling the hidden facets of human existence. The purpose of our reflection on intercultural topics is first of all to analyze the contribution of reading to the level of knowledge, then to propose the possibilities of using literary texts to demonstrate how much the dialogue between cultures is included in the works themselves, and finally, to consider which contemporary literary texts on a world scale could enrich in a relevant way the choice of books recommended to young Czechs. The conclusion will be a synthesis trying to compare the situation of Czech students to that of young Frenchmen, for example. It will also highlight the role of translation not only in teaching literature, but in knowing the Other.

The study deals with the influence of the classical tradition on Czech literature of the Early Modern Period (Renaissance, Baroque). The article demonstrates this influence through examples of the use of selected motifs from ancient history in all of the main genres of the literature of that era: homily, legend, school drama, poetry and educational literature. The study also analyses the educational background of the authors and readers of the era and their attitude to ancient history; the ways of mediation and making use of ancient motifs in the literature; and the influence of ancient historiography on Renaissance and Baroque culture and interpretation of history.

This article takes a “genealogical” approach to the concept of minor literature. It argues that the concept of minor literature originated with the idea of “triple ghetto” that emerged in the Prague Czech-German-Jewish environment and was applied to explain the work of Kafka and his fellow Prague writers. Minor literature is the most famous application of the “triple ghetto” concept. A close reconsideration of Kafka’s German/Czech/Jewish Prague reveals interesting relations among several “small,” “minor” and “ultraminor” literatures, relationships that Deleuze and Guattari overlooked. The relationships between various literary entities in Prague extend beyond the binary positioning of “minor” and “major” inherent in the concept of minor literature. In addition to Kafka’s relationship to German literature, we need to consider Kafka’s relationship to the “small” Czech literature, the marginal “ultraminor” German and German Jewish and Czech Jewish literatures of his times, and perhaps most interestingly, to writers who were equally at home in German and Czech.

It has become difficult to evaluate and gauge the extent of the ever-expanding Czech literary web. This article focuses on analyzing the current status of the Czech literary web and associated onli...

This article focuses on three nontraditional works of Czech literature and film production on the Holocaust that use elements of comedy and humor. The article discusses a Czech novel, Life with a Star (Život s hvězdou, written by Jiři Weil, published in 1949); a series of seven short stories, The Menorah (Sedmiramenný svicen, written by Josef Skvorecký, published in 1964); and six different versions of The Shop on Main Street (a short story, a serial, two versions of a screenplay, a novel, and a film) produced by Ladislav Grosman, Jan Kadar, and Elmar Klos (published in 1962, 1964, 1965, and 1998). It readdresses the place of comedy and humor in artistic representations of the Holocaust.

The Czech post-war avant-garde is split between collective enthusiasm, the adoration of the masses, and the depiction of the lone individual in crisis. Interpretations of this period have until now...

Polish Choices of Czech Female Prose in Translations after 1989In the article we pay special attention to the presence of Czech female writing in Poland after 1989. In the latest Czech literature, women are becoming more and more significant. In recent years, books by Czech female writers, particularly of a young generation, have been translated. Based on Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of field, capital and habitus, the article is concerned with the role of a translator as an active agent in literary communication.KEY WORDS: Polish choices, Czech female prose, Pierre Bourdieu’s theory, translation, a translator

Three significant books that deal with Prague are used as gateways to literary thoughts about this ancient city at the center of Europe. Short glances at the city's history are followed by two figures directly related to the nature of Prague, Franz Kafka and Jaroslav Hasek, whose tragic visions alternate and often merge with raucous laughter. This leads to the complex Czech-German relations that have been haunting, but also enriching the city's culture. Returning to literature, this study briefly explores works (banned during the Communist regime) where Prague appears filtered through the intellects and perceptions of three very different Czech writers (Klima, Kundera, Vaculik). Subsequently, the vision expands to the enormous impact Prague has had on internationally well-known writers (Apollinaire, Banville, Beckett, Rilke, Trollope). Ultimately, this essay seeks to highlight the opposites which Prague comprises – its ancient nature as it constantly renews itself, its tragic periods shot through with lively irony, its jostling because of political changes and finally, its perennially being steeped in a specific magic which writers of different cultures have long been trying to describe.

This paper presents a survey of the major trends and personalities of Czech popular culture in the 20th century and focuses on the interrelationship of various genres and personalities over the decades. Film, as a popular genre of the 20th century has been included in this survey, only when closely related to the theatre and is not an independent part of this study. In today's internet climate, vast information on this topic is freely accessible, and a wide variety of all of the presented personalities can be found on such platforms as youtube.com, however to date, a synthesizing systematic analysis comparing these individual artists, genres and styles has not yet been attempted. This paper seeks to fill this gap.

The article shows that the Czech humanists formed the largest group among the foreign members of the Academy of Arts and Sciences in Krakow. It is mainly based on the reports of the activities of the Academy. The Academy of Arts and Sciences in Krakow was established by transforming the Krakow Learned Society. The Statute of the newly founded Academy was approved by a decision of the Emperor Franz Joseph I on February 16, 1872. The Emperor nominated his brother Archduke Karl Ludwig as the Academy’s Protector. The Academy was assigned to take charge of research matters related to different fields of science: philology (mainly Polish and other Slavic languages); history of literature; history of art; philosophical; political and legal sciences; history and archaeology; mathematical sciences, life sciences, Earth sciences and medical sciences. In order to make it possible for the Academy to manage so many research topics, it was divided into three classes: a philological class, a historico‑philosophical class, and a class for mathematics and natural sciences. Each class was allowed to establish its own commissions dealing with different branches of science. The first members of the Academy were chosen from among the members of the Krakow Learned Society. It was a 12‑person group including only local members, approved by the Emperor. It was also them who elected the first President of the Academy, Józef Majer, and the Secretary General, Józef Szujski, from this group. By the end of 1872, the organization of the Academy of Arts and Sciences in Krakow was completed. It had its administration, management and three classes that were managed by the respective directors and secretaries. It also had three commissions, taken over from the Krakow Learned Society, namely: the Physiographic Commission, the Bibliographic Commission and the Linguistic Commission. At that time, the Academy had only a total of 24 active members who had the right to elect non‑ resident and foreign members. Each election had to be approved by the Emperor. The first public plenary session of the Academy was held in May 1873. After the speeches had been delivered, a list of candidates for new members of the Academy was read out. There were five people on the list, three of which were Czech: Josef Jireček, František Palacký and Karl Rokitansky. The second on the list was – since February 18, 1860 – a correspondent member of the Krakow Learned Society, already dissolved at the time. They were approved by the Emperor Franz Joseph in his rescript of July 7, 1873. Josef Jireček (1825–1888) became a member of the Philological Class. He was an expert on Czech literature, an ethnographer and a historian. František Palacký (1798–1876) became a member of the Historico‑Philosophical Class. The third person from this group, Karl Rokitansky (1804–1878), became a member of the Class for Mathematics and Natural Sciences. The mere fact that the first foreigners were elected as members of the Academy was a perfect example of the criteria according to which the Academy selected its active members. From among the humanists, it accepted those researchers whose research had been linked to Polish matters and issues. That is why until the end of World War I, the Czech representatives of social sciences were the biggest group among the foreign members of the Academy. As for the members of the Class for Mathematics and Natural Sciences, the Academy invited scientists enjoying exceptional recognition in the world. These criteria were binding throughout the following years. The Academy elected two other humanists as its members during the session held on October 31, 1877 and these were Václav Svatopluk Štulc (1814–1887) and Antonin Randa (1834–1914). Václav Svatopluk Štulc became a member of the Philological Class and Antonin Randa became a member of the Historico‑Philosophical Class. The next Czech scholar who became a member of the Academy of Arts and Scientists in Krakow was Václav Vladivoj Tomek (1818–1905). It was the Historico‑Philosophical Class that elected him, which happened on May 2, 1881. On May 14, 1888, the Krakow Academy again elected a Czech scholar as its active member. This time it was Jan Gebauer (1838–1907), who was to replace Václav Štulc, who had died a few months earlier. Further Czech members of the Krakow Academy were elected at the session on December 4, 1899. This time it was again humanists who became the new members: Zikmund Winter (1846–1912), Emil Ott (1845–1924) and Jaroslav Goll (1846–1929). Two years later, on November 29, 1901, Jan Kvičala (1834–1908) and Jaromir Čelakovský (1846–1914) were elected as members of the Krakow Academy. Kvičala became a member of the Philological Class and Čelakovský – a corresponding member of the Historical‑Philosophical Class. The next member of the Krakow Academy was František Vejdovský (1849–1939) elected by the Class for Mathematics and Natural Sciences. Six years later, a chemist, Bohuslav Brauner (1855–1935), became a member of the same Class. The last Czech scientists who had been elected as members of the Academy of Arts and Sciences in Krakow before the end of the World War I were two humanists: Karel Kadlec (1865–1928) and Václav Vondrák (1859–1925). The founding of the Czech Royal Academy of Sciences in Prague in 1890 strengthened the cooperation between Czech and Polish scientists and humanists.

Games with time, memory and history: About the prose of Milada SoučkováThe article discusses selected short stories by the Czech avant-garde writer Milada Součková. The author presents a brief interpretation of certain primary themes in the writer’s work, such as the themes of memory and history as a kind of framework of Součková’s writing. Another aspect of the article indicates subjects related to specific historical events that constitute for Součková a backdrop for presenting so-called alternative history which is combined with the microcosm of the characters in her stories. Gry z czasem, pamięcią i historią: O prozie Milady SoučkovejW artykule omówione zostały wybrane opowiadania czeskiej pisarki awangardowej Milady Součkovej. Autorka szkicu przedstawia interpretację stałych motywów w twórczości tej pisarki, takich jak motyw pamięci i historii, jako swoistej klamry ujmującej pisarstwo Součkovej. Kolejnym aspektem artykułu jest wskazanie na funkcjonowanie wątków związanych z konkretnymi wydarzeniami historycznymi, stanowiącymi tło do zaprezentowania tzw. historii alternatywnej, łączącej się z mikroświatem przedstawionych postaci.

The article is devoted to the influence of Czech literature and film about the Holocaust on the shaping of the Czech historical culture and Czech identity. The author distinguishes two important periods. Lasting from 1945 to 1948, the first one was a time when survivors produced works to tell others their true story. The second period, from the late 1950s to the late 1960s, was a time of the Czechoslovak New Wave. Often made by non-Jewish artists the-then films about the Holocaust, which were that movement’s pillar, individualised the Holocaust and did not offer clear-cut answers. Holocaust memory has not found a distinct place in Czech literature and film between 2000–2014, partly because of modern artists’ distance toward the old generation, their loose approach to the topic, and predominantly because of their ongoing search for their own values.

Circus as parody of communism. Gargling with Tar by Jachym Topol This article deals with humanism in Jachym Topol’s novel Gargling with Tar ( Kloktat dehet , Prague, 2005). The Czech writer’s perspective is close to the concepts of German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk, who claims that the Romans were not only the authors of the idea of humanitas but also the inventors of bloody games such as circuses. In Topol’s novel, the circus is a holistic political project. The novel refers to the ideas developed in Russia in the 1920s, when a large number of circus theories and artistic manifestos were formulated. The circus was then officially recognised as the most important form of social entertainment (together with cinema) and it gained religious, aesthetic and political functions. By using the grotesque, fantasy and parody (Czechoslovakia as a giant circus), Topol’s novel creates an alternative narrative about the Prague Spring and “normalisation”. New meanings for notions such as progress, revolution and community are also revealed. Cyrk jako parodia komunizmu. Powieśc Kloktat dehet Jachyma Topola Artykul analizuje pojecie humanizmu w powieści Kloktat dehet Jachyma Topola (Praga 2005). Czeski pisarz jest bliski koncepcji Petera Sloterdijka, ktory pisal, ze Rzymianie oprocz idei humanitas stworzyli takze krwawe igrzyska – cyrki. W powieści Topola cyrk to projekt polityczny, w ktorym widac wyraźne nawiązania autora do koncepcji formulowanych od lat dwudziestych XX wieku w Związku Radzieckim, kiedy cyrk (obok kina) propagowano jako najwazniejszą galąź sztuki lączącą wszystkie grupy spoleczne. Wykorzystując groteske, fan­tastyke, ale przede wszystkim parodie (figura wielkiego cyrku socjalistycznego) autor Kloktat dehet buduje alternatywną historie Praskiej Wiosny i czechoslowackiej „normalizacji”, w ktorej nowych sensow nabierają pojecia postepu, rewolucji i wspolnoty.

The ways followed by Czech literature to reach foreign readers have been sinuous in some occasions. One of the most important reasons of this fact, although not the only one, is the lesser international diffusion of Czech language, as it will be set out in this paper. A particularity of Czech literature is that during the 20th century some translations into Spanish were made in its country of origin. We will explore the ways the Czech and Spanish written literature reach the readers, such as through an unknown and perhaps fictitious translator, practice within the studied period consisting of publishing a translation under a translator name different of the real one, with the purpose of avoiding current official censorship or other administrative requirements. We will follow ?apek’s War with the Newts in its journey to Spain over the last decades. In this relationship between two literary systems, several elements play a role, such as Geopolitics, publisher’s policies, socio political settings – including censorship – macro economical and micro economical aspects and other circumstances.

This article considers the Czech cliche ‘the heart of Europe’ and its sentimentalization. It ends by linking the Czech heart with another nationalist symbol, the heart-leaved linden. The article derives the nationalist symbolism of the heart from medieval Saxon mysticism and its descendants, the Baroque cult of the Sacred Heart, taking in Cupid and his arrows on the way. Sources from the seventeenth to the twentieth century include belles-lettres, but also political writing from the Romantic historian Palacký to Vaclav Havel.

The 1945–46 expulsion of Bohemian Germans and the subsequent colonization of the Czech borderlands both stemmed from the rationalist, utopian pursuit of purity and perfection that pervades twentieth-century history. Intrinsic to that pursuit is the attempt to eradicate guilt, which can be readily seen in Czech responses to the expulsions and the social and environmental devastation of the post-war borderlands. Beginning with the principle of ‘collective guilt’ used to justify the expulsions, Czech political, academic, and media rhetoric, schoolbooks, international collusion, and collective amnesia have perpetuated the dominant myth of the Czechs as victims, while seeking to discredit any suggestion of Czech guilt. Key novels from the first wave of Czech literature about the post-war borderlands — Sedlmayerova’s The house on the green hill (1947) and R ˇezacˇ’s Advance (1951) — explicitly show the suppression of guilt in action. This suppression is also evident in the imprisonment, soon after the 1...

Examining the relationship between two of the most significant Czech writers of the early twentieth century, Richard Weiner (1884–1937) and Karel Capek (1890–1938), this article sets their divergent developmental paths into the context of broader issues within European Modernism as a whole. The re-emergence of ‘allegory’ as privileged aesthetic category — represented prominently by Walter Benjamin’s work in the 1920s — characterizes a cultural phenomenon that can be termed ‘melancholy Modernism’. Weiner and Capek’s contrasting responses to this melancholy allegorical impulse trace a fundamental fault line within the philosophical and historical development of Modernism.

The alleged crisis of Czech literature is currently a widely discussed topic among Czech writers. Therefore I analyse writing strategies that are used to overcome small context in this paper. Thereby the question of translatability plays an important part. Three approaches are followed: 1) to force originality, 2) to write ‚Euro-novels‘, 3) to change writing language. The overall picture is heterogeneous. We can consider this heterogeneity as a chance for Czech literature.

Zusammenfassung This article is an interpretation of the second part of the famous “Labyrint svĕta a ráj srdce” of Jan Amos Komenský. This text was written in the early 17th century and is in most beautiful Czech telling the story of a pilgrim who finds God by returning from his way through the sinful world (this part of the journey is described in the “Labyrint svĕta”) to his inner self. There he meets Jesus Christ in the chamber of his heart, from where he is again sent out to explore what life in the service of God can be like, if he only decides to fully believe. Komenský hereby presents his own vision of the right way of life.

This article discusses the Czech privatisation. Since there was no economic theory of privatisation in 1989, the decision makers in transition economies had to improvise and solve a dilemma: fast or slow privatisation? The Czech literature on privatisation as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the privatisation methods in the Czech Republic, including the voucher one, are discussed. The article argues against the pessimistic view of the Czech privatisation, which predominated in the literature in the second half of the 1990s.

The essay presents hitherto unpublished letters from Josef Svatopluk Machar, Zenon Przesmycki and Hermann Bahr, which are focussing on the Viennese weekly “Die Zeit”, edited by Bahr between 1894 and 1899. The correspondence between Bahr and the Czech writer and critic Machar shows up the dense modernist network, which came up due to Machar’s regular contributions to Bahr’s journal. This network was based on a mutual benefit, since both critics by means of their co-operation were able to work out their specific notion of modernism. Machar helped Bahr to present in “Die Zeit” the most actual tendencies in Czech literature, whereas Bahr due to the authority of his journal among Czech readers confirmed Machar’s aesthetic positions. The Polish critic Zenon Przesmycki, on the other hand, did not participate in this network because of his disregard for Bahr’s literary abilities.

Six hundred years of Czech writing are documented in The New York Public Library's holdings. The article shows how ideas traveled from century to century in the Czech lands and who transmitted those ideas. Examples from the collection are presented. This article is based on an oral presentation given at the Twentieth Anniversary World Congress of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences in America, at the American University, Washington, DC, August 9–13, 2000. The author thanks Edward Kasinec, Chief of the Baltic and Slavic Division, for his support, and all members of that Division for their help. This article was originally published by The Haworth Press in Slavic & East European Information Resources, 2005, Vol. 6, Issue 1, pp. 9–18, and is reprinted with permission.

The paper is concerned with the Czech privatization. According to the author, there was no economic theory of privatization in 1989. Therefore, decision makers in transition economies had to improvise and solve a dilemma: a fast, or slow privatization? The Czech literature on privatization as well as the strengths and weaknesses of privatization methods in the Czech Republic, including of the voucher one, are discussed. The paper argues against the pessimistic view on the Czech privatization, which predominated in the literature in the second half of the nineties.

Of Czech ancestry, Albert Henry Wratislaw (1821–92) was educated at Rugby and Cambridge, and later became a prominent English public-school headmaster. At Cambridge he became interested in the literature and history of Bohemia and in 1849 he travelled there for the first time, quickly becoming proficient in the language. Upon his return home he began a lifetime of immersion in Czech literature. Published in 1862, this book was the first translation into English of a major Czech prose work. It is the vivid true story of a Bohemian nobleman's journey to, imprisonment in, and return from Constantinople in the late sixteenth century. Wratislaw's translation and brief introduction to Bohemian history proved popular and helped bring Czech literature and history to a wider audience.

In Czech literature of the second half of 20th century a sadistic frenzy is present in several few novels by Jan Křesadlo, Vaclav Zygmunt and Milos Urban. Although Czech writers do not copy the work of Marquise de Sade, they do use the motif of sadism to diagnosis the human condition in modern times, just as he did. In his novels Gravelarks and The Lord of Castle Křesadlo comes back to the times of Czechoslovakian Stalinism. In the novel Graduates’ Jubilee Zykmund criticizes the middle-class mentality, while Urban, in his novel Michaela, depicts a world between fiction and reality. Czech authors present the sadistic frenzy as a synthesis of exclusivity and primitiveness. In this way they express the more general subject, that is the relationship between culture and nature in modern times. A more or less perceptible deformation of nature is a side-effect of human aspirations to rule over nature. The sadistic frenzy shows a extreme variant of this phenomenon.

Ladislav Mikes Parizek's books, articles and lectures had a large impact on the image of the Congo as it existed in communist Czechoslovakia from the 1940s till the 1970s, but this Czech traveller and writer has almost been forgotten. Through an analysis of his works and of reviews of these works published in newspapers of the 1950s, the nature of the African discourse as it was created in communist Eastern Europe, as well as the (mis)use of this discourse by the ruling party, is revealed. Special attention will be paid to the illustrations accompanying his books, articles and lectures. Keywords : Czech literature, Belgian Congo, colonialism, communism, the Other, Ladislav Mikes Parize Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Vol. 46 (1) 2009: pp. 167-178

The objective of this paper is to argue—to put it somewhat emphatically—that European culture and society regards humanity highly while at the same time degrades and mutilates animals, physically or epistemologically, by exploiting, venerating and pampering them. As the paper tries to argue, these cultural and social attitudes would benefit from the radically deterritorializing schizophrenic treatment of Deleuze as it is anticipated in the works of two Central European modernist authors, Franz Kafka and Jaroslav Hašek.As to the outline of the paper, I would like to make few brief notes on the passagefrom the Nietzschean to Deleuzian tradition of an anti-humanist thinking (provided these two can be at all seen as distinct and separate), as well as on the anti-humanist topoi in Western and Central European literature. Second, on the backdrop of this brief and fragmented observation on the genealogy of anti-humanist writing, I would like to offer a further discussion of texts of the four Czech (or Central European) authors I indicate in the paper’s title.

The paper deals with the very beginnings of the ballad genre in Czech literature. The first Czech ballads were contributions to the almanachs edited by Antonin Jaroslav Puchmajer between 1795 and 1814. Although the main importance of this handful of texts is given by the fact that they were written in Czech (both translations and originals) their structural and functional diversity gives an impression of the further development of the genre in Czech literature up to Karel Jaromir Erbens "Kytice".

This article aims at a multifaceted view of Eiichi Chino, who was a charismatic Japanese polyglot, professor of the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, and president of Wakō University. He is known above all as a leading Japanese specialist in Czech philology, Slavic philology, a researcher in general linguistics and the Japanese language (co-editor of a 6-volume encyclopedia of linguistics). He translated into Japanese a number of books from canonical Czech literature, lectured on Czech culture, and initiated a program of Czech studies in Japan. Chino is also the author of many enlightening books on linguistics.

The most important feature of this period for Czech women writers was their subordination to the demands of the new national aspirations: their aim was to write cultivated texts addressed to the whole nation. Czech nationalists encouraged women to write in order to demonstrate the maturity of modern Czech literature. At the same time, their most immediate task was to cultivate the Czech language. Despite these limited aims, however, this period of Czech literature saw the emergence of three major figures, whose work was incomparably more accomplished than that of most of their male contemporaries.

After 1945, the continuity of earlier trends and traditions of Czech culture was repeatedly disrupted. Generally accepted values and national myths were changing, and as a result this period can be characterized as one of often conflicting aesthetic and ethical norms. The treatment of women authors is an apt indicator of the various shifts in Czech culture. Since Nemcova, it can be said that men and women contributed equally to Czech prose writing, but, nevertheless, few works by contemporary women writers are considered part of the canon. For instance, in a recent handbook of Czech literature, presenting interpretations of works written in the period between 1945 and 1970, only one woman, Vera Linhartova (b. 1938), is listed.1 Although Linhartova is undoubtedly one of the most important authors of the 1960s, she was certainly not the only woman writing at the time. Such a lack of critical attention shows that after 1945 women authors were often not considered to belong to the mainstream. There are several reasons for this — a shift in the social structure, ideologization of culture, banning of various types of writing, censorship, the aftermath of war.

The aim of the article is to describe the extraordinarily animated and extensive relationships between Polish and Czech literature in the second half of the 19th century. Literary correspondence is extremely clearly revealed with regard to the Czech writer Karolina Světla and her reception in Poland and the Polish writer ElizaOrzeszkowa together with her reception in Czech. The article attempts to indicate the reasons for their popularity in these neighbouring countries in the last decades of the 19th century. Thus the subsequent reflection explores a shared viewpoint of both writers concerning national questions, combined with the necessity of women’s liberation, including their accessibility to education. By exploring the critical possibilities of literature, Světla and Orzeszkowa were exposing the imperfections of their own nations regarding patriotism and emancipation. At the same time, it is worth stressing that both writers regarded their neighbouring nation as a model.