Search results

1

Duch Havlíčkův a jiné problémy. O vydávání klasického autora

100%

Vaněk V.

Slovo a smysl - Word & Sense

|

2019

|

vol. 16

|

issue 31

71-100

EN

Since his death, Karel Havlíček Borovský (1821–1856) has been seen by the Czech public as a ‘national martyr’ (a view not entirely upheld by historical facts), as well as a symbol of courage, defiance and forthrightness. Similar qualities have been attributed to his fiction, a vivid and humorous reflection of the state of affairs in the culture and politics of his time. However, Havlíček’s poems and epigrams were created in the trying circumstances of Metternich’s Austria, during the revolutionary years of 1848 and 1849 and subsequent years of social depression. Throughout this period his publishing possibilities were limited to the demands of censorship, at risk of losing his literary existence. He wrote his best-known poems while detained in Brixen, with no hope of publication. During his lifetime he was unable to publish a single book of his own fiction, and for years after his death his works were known primarily through unauthorized copies. The first posthumous comprehensive editions of his writings (esp. Zelený 1870, Tůma 1886, Quis 1889 and 1906) were similarly limited by the political conditions of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. At the same time, however, they aimed at presenting an idealized image of the national poet by modifying and redacting the original texts. This study follows the situation outlined here from a textological perspective. In the first part, it notes the uncertain boundaries of Havlíček’s works in terms of textual units, author attribution and delimitation of genre. In the second part, it presents examples of censorship and self-censorship. In the third part, it deals with changes to Havlíček’s texts after the author’s death, mainly due to inaccurate copies and editorial interventions (e.g. the removal and concealment of taboo words). It is this aspect of publishing practice in the second half of the 19th century that results in a particularly problematic, flat and banal image of Havlíček’s work. The study is accompanied by analysis of several specific textual problems that remain unresolved.

2

Cesty tam a zase zpátky. Kolárova novela Libuše v Americe a její hodnotová orientace

100%

Vaněk V.

Slovo a smysl - Word & Sense

|

2020

|

vol. 17

|

issue 2

70-79

EN

This study aims to give a new perspective on Josef Jiří Kolár’s short story Libuše in America (German 1842, Czech 1854), long considered by critics and literary historians as a kind of popular adventure story without ideological or aesthetic ambitions. The study frst examines Kolár’s prose in the context of a contemporary domestic historical short story that takes liberties with its historical source material. In Libuše in America, however, such liberties are exaggerated to the point of founding an alternate parallel history in opposition to the tragic nature of actual historical events. Te next part of the study uses specifc examples to show how the efect of this discrepancy between the fantasy and the real world is intensifed by the original use of compositional, lexical, grammatical and poetic means (i.e. plot parallels, ‘inappropriate’ relationships between characters, linguistic exclusivity and expressiveness, contrasting poetics, and vulgarity). The fnal section shows the mutual refection of an idealized Czech society in America and the real situation in Bohemia as a manifestation of romantic irony and product of the author’s bitter refections on the decline of the Czech world.

3

Tři Čechové a jejich (sou)druzi

100%

Vaněk V.

Slovo a smysl - Word & Sense

|

2022

|

vol. 19

|

issue 41

52-74

EN

This study deals with Czech prose works of the 1850s, with particular consideration for an episode in the history of Czech literary production previously overlooked, namely the publication of prose works as part of the Library of Czech Original Historical and Modern Novels (1855–1860). The author focuses in particular on Václav Ž. Donovský’s novel Tři Čechové (‘Three Czechs’, 1855), drawing attention to his skill with form, as well as linguistic and thematic innovations (the dynamic position of the narrator, subjectivised description of space, use of colloquial language, irony, etc.). In addition, he considers the text’s cultural-historical significance and founding position in the context of Czech social prose. On the basis of Donovský’s novel and other prose works in the Library, the author then observes how the relationship between the romantic and realist literary models reflects the transitory nature of the beginnings of capitalist society. In conclusion, he considers the reasons for the unfavourable critical reception of the novel in its own time, and the possible renewal of its significance today.

Refine search results

3 Slovo a smysl - Word & Sense

3 Vaněk V.

1 2022

1 2020

1 2019

Duch Havlíčkův a jiné problémy. O vydávání klasického autora

Cesty tam a zase zpátky. Kolárova novela Libuše v Americe a její hodnotová orientace

Tři Čechové a jejich (sou)druzi