„Nemělo to obličeje. Byla to věc.“ K napětí mezi člověkem a věcmi v prozaické tvorbě české avantgardy počátku 20. let

• Authors: Zuzana Malá

Title variants

EN

‘IT DID NOT HAVE FACE; IT WAS A THING’: THE TENSION BETWEEN HUMAN BEINGS AND THINGS IN EARLY TWENTIETH-CENTURY CZECH AVANT-GARDE FICTION

• Languages of publication: CS

Abstracts

EN

This article is concerned with Czech Avant-garde fiction shortly after the First World War, which is, unlike the Avant-garde optimism declared in manifestos, also revealed in the ‘Proletarian phase’ of Czech Avant-garde expressions of uncertainty and alienation. In stories by members of Devětsil and the Literární skupina (writers, for example, Jaroslav Hůlka, Jiří Wolker, Karel Schulz, Lev Blatný, Karel Hradec, and Miloslav Nohejl) attention is paid to the relationship between characters and things. Anthropomorphization is interpreted in the text as the artistic depiction of the sense of a boundary between subject and object transgressed and as a theme demonstrating the connection between the Expressionist and the utopian Avant-garde styles. The author of the article uses a particular text to illustrate changes in models of anthropomorphization, and demonstrates ever more active objects moving from equal partner in dialogue with a character to the position of protector from the world and ultimately to aggressor. The article’s conclusions compare Avant-garde graphic art, particularly that accompanying the texts considered here.

Keywords

EN

CZECH AVANT-GARDE; ANTHROPOMORPHIZATION

Discipline

• PHILOLOGY_&_LINGUISTICS: PHILOLOGY & LINGUISTICS

• Publisher: Institute of Czech Literature, Czech Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Česká literatura (Czech Literature)
• Year: 2011
• Volume: 59
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 175-198

Contributors

author

Zuzana Malá

• Česká literatura, redakce, Ústav pro českou literaturu AV ČR, v.v.i., Na Florenci 3, 110 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic