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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.

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.

This article deals with the history of Czech children’s and juvenile literature and its tradition in both national and European contexts. It examines foreign authors (French, German, Russian, English, American, and some others) and their works translated into Czech that played a significant role in the Czech literary scene. The rediscovery of Czech folklore in the 19th century coincides with the revival of the national culture and restitution of the language as reflected in fiction and poetry. The development of literature for children and youth owes much to translations. In the 19th century, Jules Verne was the must read for children and so was Antoine de Saint- Exupery in the 20th; his Little Prince has undergone multiple editions. The second part of the study examines contemporary children’s and juvenile literature by comparing the situation on the book market in France with that in Czech Republic. The analysis focuses on two novels for young people that present young characters who have to cope with different crises and help ill people they love (Céline Lavignette-Ammoun and Ivona Březinová). The essay’s conclusion, based on the polls among children and young people as well as on literary criticism, shows that neither the theme nor the approach of the authors or the preferences of the readers in the two countries considerably differ. This is due to the fact that juvenile literature knows no borders as it gives preference to the interplay of fantasy and imagination. What characterizes contemporary juvenile literature, however, is its openness to the hitherto tabooed themes as well as its interest in the relation between the sameness and the otherness.

When analyzing literary fiction, most cultural sociologists still accept the well-established boundaries between the literary and the sociological, thus leaving literature stripped of its aesthetic qualities. Instead, I propose a new approach that focuses on the process of meaning-making as it occurs within the interaction between the reader and the novel in a given socio-historical setting. This allows analysts to capture those aspects of understanding social experience which are usually ‘lost in translation’ between fictional and sociological genres. My major claims are that, first, when referring to social experience, both sociological and literary texts employ aesthetic devices to mediate understanding for the reader. Second, within the literary genre, the understanding of social experience relies much more on the emotional engagement of the reader through a reading process facilitated by these aesthetic devices. Third, to benefit methodologically and epistemologically from the lyrical understanding of social experience mediated by literature, cultural sociologists must be particularly sensitive to the subtlety and ambiguity of meanings mediated by the aesthetic. The methodological advantage gained is the analysis of deeper cultural meanings grounded in, yet also going beyond, an emotionally and existentially experienced social reality, which is intersubjectively shared and filtered by various groups of readers and cultural intermediaries. The epistemological advantage gained by overcoming the assumed inferiority of literature is that cultural sociological research unlocks a whole new area for understanding the meanings of social life, especially its non-discursive dimensions. The research model I propose for a new sociology of literature adopts the landscape of meaning concept developed by Isaac Reed in combination with the aesthetic structuralism of Czech linguist Jan Mukařovský. This model will be demonstrated through an interpretive analysis of the Czech novel Sestra (published in English as City Sister Silver) by Jáchym Topol.

Ivo Harák věnuje ve své studii pozornost posledním vydaným sbírkám básnířky Karly Erbové. Tato spisovatelka letos oslavila 85 let svého života. A to v plné práci na svém díle. Které je známé také čtenářům v zahraničí, například v Polsku. Autor se snaží postihnout především duchovní kořeny a postupnou proměnu poezie jubilující básnířky.

In order to question what is authentically human, science fiction writers often make use of "humanoid others" like robots, androids and aliens, which are hybrid figures where the categories of "human" and "non-human" intertwine in different ways. In this study, by comparatively analyzing Czech writer Karel Čapek's two famous science fiction works, R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) (1920) and War with the Newts (1936), I will discuss what function robots and newts have as humanoid others in Čapek's enquiry of true human nature. Čapek is commonly regarded as a pluralist, neutral and relativist writer who brings together many perspectives in his work yet doesn't openly adopt any of them, and likewise makes it hard for his readers to pick a side. Therefore it is difficult to determine at first glance who or what the characters in his work represent. However when we carefully examine Čapek's texts, we realize that Čapek is not quite neutral and there is a normative core hidden within these texts. In his multi-layered narratives where he brings onto stage many contrasting views regarding the issues he addresses and criticizes, Čapek also implicitly conveys his own views on what the human should or shouldn't be. The aim of this article is to study Čapek’s criteria for being human and to reveal the normative core in his aforementioned works, in accordance with his other writings and pertinent biographical information., Robotlar, androidler ve uzaylılar gibi “insansı ötekiler”, bilimkurgu yazarlarının otantik olarak insansal olanın ne olduğunu sorgularken sıklıkla kullandıkları, “insan” ve “insan-olmayan” kategorilerinin farklı tarzlarda iç içe geçtiği melez figürlerdir. Bu çalışmamda Çek yazar Karel Čapek’in bilimkurgu türünde verdiği iki ünlü eseri olan R.U.R. (Rossum’un Evrensel Robotları) (1920) ve Semenderlerle Savaş (1936) eserlerini karşılaştırmalı bir şekilde analiz ederek, bu metinlerdeki insansı ötekiler olarak robotların ve semenderlerin Čapek’in insanın neliğine dair soruşturmasında ne gibi bir işleve sahip olduğunu tartışmaya açacağım. Čapek, eserlerinde pek çok bakış açısını bir araya getiren, ancak hiçbirinden yana açıkça tavır almayan, okuyucunun da taraf tutmasını zorlaştıran, çoğulcu, tarafsız ve göreci bir yazar olarak ünlenmiştir. Dolayısıyla onun eserlerindeki karakterlerin tam olarak kimi veya neyi temsil ettiklerini ilk bakışta tespit etmek zordur. Ne var ki Čapek’in metinlerini dikkatlice incelediğimizde Čapek’in o kadar da tarafsız olmadığını, bu metinlerde normatif bir çekirdeğin de saklı olduğunu fark ederiz. Čapek, metinlerinde irdelediği ve eleştirdiği meselelere dair pek çok farklı görüşü sahneye çıkardığı çok-katmanlı anlatılarında, insanın ne olması veya ne olmaması gerektiğine dair kendi görüşlerini de örtük olarak da olsa bize aktarmaktadır. Bu çalışmanın amacı, Čapek’e dair biyografik bilgilerden ve Čapek’in diğer metinlerinden de yer yer yararlanarak, Čapek’in bu iki edebi eserinde insansal olandan neyi anladığını incelemek ve bu eserlerdeki normatif çekirdeği açığa çıkarmaktır.

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.

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...

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.

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...

Karel Capek is regarded by many literary historians as one of the most important authors of the interwar Czechoslovak Republic. Despite this designation, he continues to be controversial, particularly in the Anglophone world, as some critics believe that Capek never actually comprehended the character of evil. On the occasion of the 120th anniversary of Capek's birth, this article re-examines some of the most important themes of Capek's writing from the vantage point of current events and well-known literary scholars. As one of the first European authors to experiment with multi-perspective approaches, Capek echoes Lacan in some of his early work, while anticipating existentialism and postmodernism. These approaches will be investigated alongside Capek's own analyses of society and politics, particularly topical today.

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 aim of this article is to present a concise insight into the Shoah topics in Czech literature. The images of the Shoah went through various phases within Czech literature. Immediately after World War II, it primarily centered on documentary accounts of those who had lived through Nazi camps (The Death Factory by Ota Kraus and Erich Schon/Kulka about Auschwitz). Jiři Weil's novel Life with a Star (1949) not only presented the horrible brutality of the Shoah, but also its seemingly banal, even profane side. This novel is considered the most important work on this theme in Czech literature and has inspired a multitude of other works. Arnost Lustig, who survived both Theresienstadt and Auschwitz, entered the literary scene at the end of the 1950s. The Shoah became the topic of his life's work (for instance A Prayer for Katarina Horovitzova). Arnost Lustig, Ladislav Fuks (Mr. Theodor Mundstock) and other authors used persecution and extermination of the Jews also as a metaphor for man caught in the machinery of the totalitarian regime. Some of these works also became famous in film versions like The Shop on Main Street, which was inspired by the story of Ladislav Grossman and received a foreign-language Academy Award in 1965. From the end of the 1960s onwards, this theme did not play such a key role in Czech literature as it had previously. So the Shoah appears in the background of several books by Viktor Fischl who emigrated from Czechoslovakia to Israel. For the generation which had never experienced World War II, they primarily understood this theme in terms of set images and stark Holocaust iconography. Some younger authors attempted to push these borders through representing the Shoah in an unusual way, fusing the grotesque, horror, vulgarity and banality (Arnost Goldflam, Jachym Topol).

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.

The focus of the paper is the analysis of the story about the courtesan Komurasaki and the samurai Shirai Gonpachi. The story, recurring in Japanese literature, appears also in Czech literature – the writings of Juliusz Zeyer – and in Polish literature of the turn of nineteenth century. The analysis will focus mainly on two works: Wacław Sieroszewski’s Miłość samuraja and Władysław Reymont’s Komurasaki. Żałosna historya o pękniętem porcelanowem sercu japońskim.

Long-ignored or mentioned only sporadically, the phenomenon of indirect translation has sparked increasing interest in translation studies in the past few years. Jaroslav Spirk's first monograph, C...

This is one book that can truly be judged by its cover. The catchy subtitle (which echoes that of one of the English translations of The Good Soldier Svejk [Hasek 2000]) and arresting cover illustr...

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 goals of the present dissertation are twofold: 1) to bring back into the literary thought the notion of "world view", which has been largely discredited due to its abusage in the context of official Marxism during the socialist era, and 2) to affirm the usefulness of the notion of "world view" in the literary practice. The thesis is structured so as to meet the goals: the first chapter presents several probes of the usage of the phrase "world view" and definition discussions related to it. In this framework, the "scientific world view" from the socialist era is then confronted with a range of other definitions of the notion, such as F. X. Šalda's "view of life and world". In the second chapter, I present my approach to this notion, aimed at serving the purposes of current literary research. Firstly, I distinguish the notion of "world view" from the notions of "mentality" and "ideology", and secondly, following the research of The Worldviews Group (Brussels) I propose my own definition of world view. Since the Group does not deal with actual interpretations of literary texts, I make use for the intended purpose of an updated and slightly modified concept of Terry Eagleton, originally published within the monograph Criticism and Ideology (1976). What is essential is foremost to differ between a)...

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.

Obraz v narativní próze : Malířské motivy v české literature konce století Výtvarné dílo hraje důležitou úlohu jako motiv románové fikce a předložená studie se zabývá jeho místem v díle dvou českých spisovatelů, Julia Zeyera Dobrodružství Madrány, « Z papíru na kornouty », Dům и tonoucí hvězdy, Tereza Manfredi, « Legenda o jarním dešti », « Blaho v zahradě kvetoucích broskví ») a Jiřího Karáska ze Lvovic (Scarabeus, Ganymedes, Román Manfreda Macmillena, « Zlověstná madona », « Františkánská legenda », Zastřený obraz). Oba spisovatelé se ve svých textech zabývali různou, mnohdy rozporuplnou formou výtvarnými realizacemi postav a krajin. Motiv obrazu se zde často prolíná s motivem pozorovatele, což kromě jiných metamorfóz vede к postupné identifikaci literární postavy s malířským portrétem (u Zeyerových postav to vede až к psychickému rozkladu). Tradiční motiv magické moci obrazu, který se zde přímo nabízí, se vyvíjí od fantastického « exteriéru » к psychologickému tázání o člověku. To se mnohdy odehrává prostřednictvím meditace umělce nad modelem, nebo nad nedotknutelnou, záhadnou, ba i skrytou částí samotného uměleckého díla — s tím se setkáváme zvláště u Karáska, kde se ruka umělce zdá být ovládána jakousi vnější silou, rukou ďáblovou, nebo silou vlastního hříchu., The Picture Within the Narrative : Painting as a Motif in Fin de Siècle Czech Literature Paintings play a major part as motifs in novels, and this study focuses on their place in the works of two Czech writers, Julius Zeyer Dobrodružství Madrány [The Adventures of Modrána], Z papíru na kornouty [Of the Paper of which we Made Cones], Dům u tonoucí hvězdy [The House of the Sinking Star], Teréza Manfredi, Legenda o jarním dešti [Legend of a Spring Rain], Blaho v zahradě kvetoucích broskví [Bliss in the Garden of Flowering Peach-Trees]) and Jiří Karásek ze Lvovic (Scarabeus, Ganymedes, Román Manfred Macmillena [The Novel of Manfred Macmillen], Zlověstná madona [The Evil Madonna], Františkánská legenda [A Franciscan Legend], Zastřený obraz [The Veiled Painting]). Both writers show in their texts, using various and sometimes divergent forms, an interest in real or partly imaginary portraits, and also in landscapes, the motif of the painting being sometimes combined with that of the spectator observing it. This creates, among other metamorphoses, the identification of the literary character (and, in Zeyer's case above all, his psychological disarray) with the pictorial portrait. Above all else, it is the traditional motif of the magical power of the portrait which prevails, shifting from an 'external' fantasy form to a psychological examination of mankind. The latter is sometimes conveyed through the artist's meditations on his model, or through the intangible, mysterious, or even occult dimension of the work of art itself: in Karásek's works, in particular, the artist's hand itself seems to be dominated by an external force — the devil's hand or the force of the artist's own sin., Voisine-Jechová Hana. Le tableau dans le récit : le motif de la peinture dans la littérature tchèque fin de siècle. In: Revue des études slaves, tome 74, fascicule 1, 2002. pp. 43-62.

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.

Autor analizuje dwie polskie współczesne encyklopedie literatury, zatytułowane: "Słownik pisarzy świata" (opublikowaną w Krakowie w 2004 roku) i "Encyklopedię literatury światowej" (opublikowaną w Krakowie w 2005 roku).Główny problem był następujący: ile biogramów czeskich i słowackich pisarzy zaprezentowano w tych edycjach? Autor ukazauje szczególnie problemy ilości (liczby) słowackich i czeskich kobiet-pisarek, problem ilości (liczby) pisarzy dla dzieci i młodzieży, problem proporcji słowackich i czeskich dawnych pisarzy, którzy urodzili się pomiędzy 9-tym a 18-tym wiekiem) oraz nowoczesnych i wspołczesnych pisarzy czeskich i słowackich, którzy urodzili się lub żyli w 19-tym lub 20-tym wieku. Autor ukazuje, ilu słowackich i czeskich pisarzy było emigrantami. To dotyczy tylko biogramów słowackich i czeskich pisarzy, którzy są rezprezntowani w dwoch opublikowanych książkach (słowniku i encyklopedii, jak wyżej). Artykuł jest pierwszym tekstem na ten temat w przedmiotowej literaturze. Autor stwierdził, że międzynarodowe relacje pomiędzy kulturami (literaturami): czeską, słowacką i polską w przyszlości zależą głównie od większej lilości tłumaczeń na polu literatury. Więcej przekładów literatury jest konieczne dla dobrych relacji pomiędzy kulturami narodowymi w Republice Czeskiej, Słowacji i Polsce. Szcególnie obecnie potrzeba więcej dobrze zrobionych przekładów literatury dydaktycznej dla dzieci i młodzieży. Dla wychowania przez literaturę potrebujemy więcej dobrze przełożonych pięknych książek z literatury czeskiej, słowackiej i polskiej. Autor konkluduje, że naukowe badania na ten temat są potrzebne w przyszłości w obszarze pomiędzy literaturą, pedagogiką (edukacją) i bibliologią. The author analyzed two Polish contemporary encyclopedias of literature, entitled: "Słownik pisarzy świata" ("The Vocabulary of Writers from all over the World", published in Cracow in 2004 year) and "Encyklopedia literatury światowej" (The Encyclopedia of the World Literature, published in Cracow in 2005 year). The main problem was the next: how many biographies of Czech and Slovak's writers are represented in these editions? The author shows especially problems of quantity (number) of Slovak and Czech's women-writers, problem of quantity (number) of writers for children and youth, problem of proportions Slovak and Czech's ancient writers (who were born and lived between 9th and 18th centuries), and modern and contemporary Czech and Slovak's writers, who were born and lived in 19th and 20th centuries. The author shows, how many Slovak and Czech's writers were emigrants. It concerns only biographies of Slovak and Czech's writers, who are represented in two published books (vocabulary and encyclopedia, vide supra). This article is the first text on this theme in subject literature. The author said, that international relations between Czech, Slovak and Polish's cultures (literatures) in future depends mainly from more number of translations in area of literature. More translations of literature are necessary for well relations between national cultures in Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland. Especially it is necessary more translations in didactic literature for children and youth, now. For education through literature we need more well-done beautiful books from Czech and Slovak and Polish literature. The author makes conclusions (concludes), that scientific researches on this theme are need in future in this area between literature, education and bibliology.

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.

Romanticism, one of the most important philosophical and artistic periods in modern European culture, was never the mainstream tradition in Czech literature. Nor did the Gothic novel influence this literature in a significant way. In his Denik kastelana (Custodian’s Diary), Jan Bittner tries to use the formulas of traditional literary horror. The main aim of this renovation seems to be to search for a narrative form which is appropriate to show the problems and priorities of the modern self. The hero of the novel, who runs away from Prague and decides to live far from the postmodern civilization with its relativity of values and lack of metaphysical horizons, finds in the haunted baroque village castle a place where he can once again define the sense of life.

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.