In the article I analyse, using a specific example from 1830, the identity-shaping perception of the mountains as a border at a time of Czech national agitation. Drawing on the memoirs of a young Prague law student, Václav Vladivoj Tomek, later an eminent Czech historian, I present perception categories he used to reflect on the differences between societies and cultures along the Czech-Silesian (Austrian-Prussian) border and to discuss their links with the landscape. This is placed, on the one hand, in the context of the agitation phase of the Czech national movement in its early period, and on the other in the context of individual and collective processes of identification of a young man at a key stage of his personal development. Tomek expressed his observations in the language of cultural, social and confessional diversity. In this he focused on the quality of life, architecture, faith (with a tendency to exoticise Protestantism) and partly also historical culture in Prussia. Significantly, there are no comments concerning the problem of the mismatch, so important in later years, between the state and the language border: the transition between predominantly Czech-speaking and predominantly German-speaking regions near the state border (in this case the Broumov region) is not even mentioned. The crossing of the border as a practice is not referred to either; the border is seen as a point, what is mentioned in its crossing are only state symbols. Although strong emotions are visible, the now nationally aware Tomek does not allude to national emotions (state border), but to a Romantic view of the landscape accompanied by a fascination, typical of the period, with what is picturesque and extraordinary in the mountains, rocks, sights and traces of the past found in the mountains.
The geographical location within the Kashubian region is of particular significance for the symbolic role of mountains and hills in the regional identity building. The most important of them, described in the literature and journalistic writings, are to be found in the current Kashubian language area, mostly in its geographical centre, primarily in Kashubian Switzerland and Kashubian Lake District. The exception is Rowokół, which is not located centrally. This mountain symbolically marks the border of the area in which the Kashubian language is used and which was settled by the Kashubians in the modern period. It even symbolises a retreat of the language as well as the decline of the Slovincian language. However, it is this particular mountain which since the 19th century has been associated with relatively new content mixed with older religious and folk tradition. The mountains and hills appearing in the Kashubian literature in 1880–1930 probably never existed only for themselves and in themselves. They were always part of a broader picture of Kashubia. The contribution offers a typology of four groups of symbolic relevant hills and mountains, accordingly to their function in the Kashubian discourse and tradition: 1. abstract imagination of a “hilly landscape” as typical for the Kashubian country; 2. groups of hills with similar names and connected to similar folklore or literary traditions; 3. unique mountains with special significance for the all-Kashubian discourse; 4. hills as Kashubian places of pilgrimage.
The article attempts to define five phases in Hroch´s studies on national movements since the 1960s till today as well as the dominant empirical, interpretational and methodical features of his contribution – as they are internationally reflected. However, in some cases (the “phases A – B – C” of the national movement), this reflection is connected with decontextualization or misunderstandings of Hroch´s concepts and interpretations (e.g. the above mentioned phases A – B – C were not a result, but an introductory methodical tool of Hroch´s comparative study, and they are often interpreted only “by touch”), but that changes nothing on their inspiring impact. On this background, the articlle poses the question of “productive desinterpretations” of concepts, which are in the historiography (or generally cultural and social science) perhaps not an extraordinary phenomenon.
In the article I analyse, using a specific example from 1830, the identity-shaping perception of the mountains as a border at a time of Czech national agitation. Drawing on the memoirs of a young Prague law student, Václav Vladivoj Tomek, later an eminent Czech historian, I present perception categories he used to reflect on the differences between societies and cultures along the Czech-Silesian (Austrian-Prussian) border and to discuss their links with the landscape. This is placed, on the one hand, in the context of the agitation phase of the Czech national movement in its early period, and on the other in the context of individual and collective processes of identification of a young man at a key stage of his personal development. Tomek expressed his observations in the language of cultural, social and confessional diversity. In this he focused on the quality of life, architecture, faith (with a tendency to exoticise Protestantism) and partly also historical culture in Prussia. Significantly, there are no comments concerning the problem of the mismatch, so important in later years, between the state and the language border: the transition between predominantly Czech-speaking and predominantly German-speaking regions near the state border (in this case the Broumov region) is not even mentioned. The crossing of the border as a practice is not referred to either; the border is seen as a point, what is mentioned in its crossing are only state symbols. Although strong emotions are visible, the now nationally aware Tomek does not allude to national emotions (state border), but to a Romantic view of the landscape accompanied by a fascination, typical of the period, with what is picturesque and extraordinary in the mountains, rocks, sights and traces of the past found in the mountains.
In the past couple of decades the social sciences have paid much attention to the topic of boundaries and boundary regions. The present article analyses the changes in the discursive assessment of the Czech-Saxon boundary after 1989. It focuses on the transformation of the national and transnational culture and politics of history related to boundaries, cross-border regions and cross-border interactions. The interplay of the socio-political transition with its discursive implications and the application of new methods and concepts in social sciences (boundary and identity studies, spatial turn etc.) created conditions for a significant modification of the approach to boundaries and boundary regions. Concentrating on the public and academic discourse, the article assesses the conceptualization and representation of the Czech-Saxon boundary in political and public rhetoric, historiography and museology.
In the most recent decade, the thematic field of frontiers and identity, especially the interconnection of both concepts, has belonged among the symptomatic phenomena of Czech historiography. As a result, coordinated and mutually coherent works have been developed, which, in addition to research, also involved activities in the areas of historical education, the transfer of knowledge and international cooperation. It is one of the fields in which Czech historiography has been actively involved in international scientific communication, and in addition in a partly coordinator role. With the emergence of the new theme of frontiers and identity, Czech historiography relatively quickly responded to the developments in international scientific reflections. This contribution deals with reasons for this newly arisen focus, albeit neither the theme of frontiers nor the issue of identity were entirely novel categories of historical thought in the 1990s and in later years. However, at this time they attained rather new connotations and relevant meanings and in connection with this the manner of treating the subject matter has also changed. Post-modernist challenges – in terms of post-modern perspectives and critical responses to them – have become decisive preconditions of this phenomenon from the last stages of the 20th century. This contribution follows the formation of new concepts of collective identities, frontiers and space, especially in their mutual interconnection. At the same time attention is paid to mutual connections between international and Czech reflections. At its conclusion, comments are devoted to the special section of the 10th Congress of Czech Historians in Ostrava, which dealt with these issues.
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