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Copyright of Porównania / Comparisons. A Journal on Comparative Literature & Interdisciplinary Studies is the property of Adam Mickiewicz University Poznao, Press of "Poznanskie Studia Polonistyczne" 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 enquires how the functional relationship between the broader framework of Czech poet Jan Zahradníček’s vision of the world and the narrower, governing principle shaped by his declared adoption of a fixed, ideologically unambiguous (confessional) model for viewing life and the world is realized. The present author’s deliberation is based on an analysis of the categories of lyrical subject, space and time as rendered artistically in two collections of verse by Jan Zahradníček:Žíznivé léto(Thirsty Summer, 1935) andPozdravení slunci(A Salute to the Sun, 1937). It is found that, rather than speaking of the mutually contingent effect of these two planes of reality, it would be better to think in terms of a colliding of fragments, each of which represents a part of its own reality — poetic truth and truth sprung from an ideology. The literary text becomes a specific locus that makes this intersection possible, and it expresses an entirely new form of reality. Motivated on the one hand by the experience of creative freedom and on the other by having voluntarily accepted certain external ideological considerations which perforce refine poetic freedom, or poetic output, with regard to the appreciation of its meaning, thereby giving it added force and depth, the poet fashions — with various degrees of success — the sundry fragments of this and that layer of reality into a two-way correlation that is reinforced by the dominant effect of the aesthetic function. He thus creates a specific, imaginary whole that opens man up to the world and adumbrates for the reader the idea of unity in diversity. However, at the same time he does not veil the sense of disillusionment that lies at the root of all modern poetry, arising from the notion that neither life, nor the world can be integrated into some ideal, harmonious form. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study is reflecting the method of recording and preserving poetry of contemporary Czech poets, influenced by the advent of digital technologies in 1990s. The examples of the poets Ludvík Kundera, Miroslav Holub and J. H. Krchovský illustrate that the approach to using computer may considerably differ within the same generation, let alone different generations. The questionnaire research, which the author carried out with thirty men and women poets of the middle and younger generations, documents their relationship to the new media. It is apparent that in some aspects the poets are tradicionalists - e.g. in putting down the initial ideas on paper - though in this case they can use the mobile phone as a digital notebook. However, the correspondence has underwent striking changes - since around 1998, with the rise of the electronic mail, the poets almost ceased using the classical postal service for correspondence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study reflects on methods of recording and preserving poetry used by contemporary Czech poets, as influenced by the advent of digital technologies in the 1990s. The examples of poets Ludvík Kundera, Miroslav Holub and J. H. Krchovský illustrate that the approach to using a computer may differ considerably within the same generation, let alone across generations. The author carried out a questionnaire survey with thirty men and women poets of the middle and younger generations in order to document their relationship to the new media. It is apparent that in some aspects the poets are traditionalists - e.g., they put down initial ideas on paper, though in this case they might use a mobile phone as a digital notebook. Correspondence has undergone striking change - since around 1998, with the rise of electronic mail, the poets have almost ceased to use the classical postal service for correspondence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A biography of Czech poet Jaroslav Seifert, who won the 1984 Nobel Prize for Literature, is presented. He was born on September 9, 1901 in Prague, Czech Republic. It is said that he was involved in Communist organizations but dissented from the Czechoslovakian government a signed the dissident manifesto Charter 77. He died in 1986. Several poems by Seifert are presented, including "Píseň o rodné zemi," "První dopis mamince," and "filosofie."

This article deals with the mutual correspondence (with its part written in Latin) of a Carlsbad spa medical doctor coming from Geneva, Jean de Carro (1770-1857), and Karel A. Vinañcky (1803-1869), a Czech poet, writer and translator of ancient texts, who worked as a ceremoniary of Prague archbishop and later as a parish priest in Kováñ near Miada Boleslav. Both scholars exchanged forty-two letters written in Latin between 1829-1843, and their correspondence represents thus unique evidence of using LÄin as a communicational language in the Czech lands of that time. The article brings information on the life of both men, it summarizes the contents of their correspondence and comments on their relationship to Antiquity as reflected also in the references to it in their mutual letters. As appendix, letter of Jean de Carro and so-far unpublished Vinañcky's reply from 1843 are edited at the end of the article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In her last great lyric work, Poems to Bohemia, Marina Tsvetaeva draws on many symbols of Czech culture to create a myth of Bohemia to oppose the tragic fate that befell Czechoslovakia in the late 1930s. One particular cultural symbol Tsvetaeva turns to is the text of the Czech national anthem, "Where is my home?" Tsvetaeva was familiar with this national hymn from her three-year stay in Czechoslovakia immediately following her emigration, and her initial reading of the hymn leads her to incorporate the theme of exile and exilic desire into the first poems of her cycle. As she gains familiarity with the text of the hymn, however, and as the political situation changes in Czechoslovakia, Tsvetaeva turns away from the theme of longing for a promised land, and instead focuses inward, emphasizing the strength of the Czech spirit, much in the same way the national anthem shifts from a description of the Bohemian countryside as an earthly paradise to the stalwart nature of the Czechs themselves. Tsvetaeva thus underscores the importance of spiritual dwelling over material homeland and prophesies the rebirth of Czech culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vladimir Holan is par excellence "a poet in times of distress," to quote one of the most famous lines of Hölderlin's elegy "Bread and Wine" (Brot und Wein, 1800). This paper tries to interpret the attitude of the lyric subject in Holan's poetry as the primacy of ethics against politics or aesthetics. To be poetically responsible for the world means to be conscious that there is no superiority of the poet over ordinary people, even if it is his main duty to save (or to reactivate) the special power of the poetic word: the use of ordinary language in Holan's poetry is not in contradiction with his "orphism," and that is one of his most original distinguishing features in European poetry of the twentieth century. The only privilege of poetry in "times of distress" consists in revealing that the essence of freedom is profoundly poetic. That is why, beyond his baroque complexity, Holan's poetry aims paradoxically at a superior "simplicity," not far from the poems of Rainer Maria Rilke's maturity, especially in the last Duino Elegies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The correspondence exchanged between the poets Vladimír Holan and Zbynĕk Hejda allows us to pick out several aspects of Holan the man: his loneliness in opposition to his mythic stature, his relationship to Christianity, his slight anti-Semitism…More importantly, on a literary level, the parallel between them allows us to draw up several important issues, such as the limitedness of Holan's extensive use of metaphor, pushing the following generation of writers, such as Jiří Kolář or Jan Hanč, to distrust it. In the critique "Interpretation as a matter of good will" published in Tvář in 1969, Bohumil Doležal claims that Holan's tendency towards opaque expressions, far from letting him formulate a philosophical vision of the universe and its mysteries, has led him to dressing up trivial and kitsch contents in mysterious clothing. And yet Holan has also written many poems that are devoid of complex metaphors -- which leads us to the question: where is Holan true to himself? In the complex texts with metaphysical effect? In which case his stylistically more transparent texts would be but occasional catnaps? Or are the great texts of the ontological difference mere exercises of style that have become quantitatively more important beside a more discrete but more personal work? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are two sources for our analysis of the topic -- Holan's excerpts in his notebooks and glosses in the books. Our text discusses differences between them. First of all it tries to reconstruct the relationship between the excerpts and poems. Secondly it characterises the glosses as commentaries of actual and historical events, religion, art, literature and his personal relationships with other people. Our speculation about glosses as an autonomous genre is exemplified with many citations of Holan's glosses and the titles of commented books. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the literary history, the aesthetic generation to which Holan belongs is that of the confirmation of the avant-garde. But a fine analysis of the interwar period gives evidence of a concurrently essential and conflicting relation with the early 20th century. The filiation with the Symbolists is differently analyzed and interpreted: Vítezslav Nezval suggests, above all in his Modern Poetic Trends (Moderní básnické smery, on 1937), to pass them over. Vladimír Holan on the contrary does not stop seeing an example of the poetic rise towards the absolute, as indicated by collections such as Breath (Vanutí, 1932) or Bow (Oblouk, 1934). But in his poems in prose, "Lemuria" (1934-1938), and maybe more clearly, "Fragment" (Torso, 1933), Holan proposes a poetry which gives up the ambition of sublimity. This resignation is not anecdotal: indeed, it announces the approval of the negative which will stand out as an essential part of its poetic long-term project, and which will bloom in his greatest later works ("Without title," "Pain," "A Night with Hamlet"). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to study aspects of contemplative darkness present in Holan's poetry. As the analysis reveals, such darkness is not to be considered only as a passive scheme open to nothingness, but also as an active force, a major condition for the poet's philosophical and poetical explorations. The references to curtains, veils and mist hint at the presence of a mystery which can be seen only through the flash of a short-lived revelation. The poet must wait for these moments to catch a glimpse of the enigma of existence. Such a moment of revelation is dearly paid for by extreme poetical perceptions, sustained by acutely precise images. The narcissistic indulgence in formal perfection gives way to a patient disclosure of "the game of Being with the poet." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study on the spatial and corporeal concept of the word in the work of Vladimír Holan and Věra Linhartová seeks to characterise the concept of the word in the texts of two contemporary Czech poets from different generations. Their concepts involve the use of similar imagery in discussing the word. They also show the same quest for a "supreme sense" in the poetic word. Their concept of the word stems from an ancient tradition in the interpretation of the biblical word, conceiving of the word as a multiple spatial structure of four different semantic layers. In the work of the two poets, the word has a complex spatial structure that needs to be explored in every sense. Poetry presents itself as the art which explores verbal space. This special concept of the word indicates why the poetry of both poets is so rich in hidden meanings and could be called "hermetic poetry." The depth of the semantic space directs the "explorer" beyond the common meaning toward the unexpected. In this way these two modern poets remind us of the fact that one has to look behind the surface of words in order to grasp their sense. They also remind us that words never are "innocent" or pure but bear the weight and function of their cultural memory. Both poets augment this spatial concept by the corporeal one, as in the New Testament, where Christ is presented as "the Word of God" made flesh. Like the Word of God that suffered on the cross, poetic words suffer on the cross of their given meaning. Their "resurrection" consists on the one hand in the reconstruction of their lost, hidden or original meaning, on the other hand in their liberation from given senses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Holan's referencing of the Bible is frequent, even if we cannot assert that it is the sole, or even privileged, influence. This paper does not intend to portray the scope of these allusions, but rather to indicate by means of a few examples how and in what sense he makes varied use of the Bible's familiar imaginary landscape. More often than not his approach consists in re-working a biblical theme by superimposing it upon another theme. He was also very conscious of the poetic dimension of the Bible, most notably that of the Old Testament. If the referencing of the Bible takes on great significance in Holan, then it is primarily due to the possibilities offered by the Bible to establish a parallel between poetic creation and creation as it is set forth in the Bible itself. We have access to Holan's own handwritten annotations in the copies of the Bible in his personal library. These annotations serve an important function by allowing us to examine the correspondences between Holan's commentaries and their transformations in his writings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the poet Vladimir Holan (1905-1980) belongs to the Czech modernist generation, it is difficult to assess his work either in this context or in the wider Czech literary tradition. First, Holan's poetry is hermetic, based on the autonomy of the word, philosophical references and cultural allusions, thus offering multiple possibilities of interpretation. Second, several personal tragedies drove him into ever deeper isolation, further exacerbated by the strain of living under the communist regime. This article describes the relationship between the events of Holan's life and the main features of his poetic work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an introduction to this issue on the Czech poet Vladimír Holan and discusses the influence of historical events on Holan's work, somber themes in his work, and references to the Bible also present in his work.

Interviews Czech poet, writer and translator Patrik Ourednik. Czech literature; Differentiation of traditional writing and post-modern writing; Czech language; Culture; Revivalism.