If we are to understand Prague School Functionalism in the sense of the first paragraph of the Theses presented by the Prague Linguistic Circle to the First Congress of Slavists held in Prague in 1929, teleology becomes a single-word synonym for the dynamic functional structure “means–aim/purpose/function”. In such a case, it not necessary to view it as one of the basic concepts of the Prague School. However, if we are to understand the issue such that language is above all an immanent structure which is intentionally “aware” of its movement toward goals, then teleology is one of the basic concepts of the Prague School. The first case represents a question of the relationships “means–aim/purpose/function”, while in the second it is entirely appropriate to speak of goals.
The cult of the thing forced itself into the spotlight in the avant-garde through all possible routes, including the denotation of the text genre as a thing. In particular, this was how the Russian avant-garde and Russian literary criticism proclaimed their renunciation of the high, ecstatic concept of art. But the roots of the prolific methods of Russian formalism and Czech structuralism were simultaneously being found in Husserl’s phenomenology. In the Czech modernist tradition, the general aesthetic concept of the work-thing as one of the most important vantage points of a work of art was more effective than the thing-genre, and it has remained meaningful even up to now. In Jan Mukařovský’s aesthetics, the concept of the work-thing underwent a radical transformation, whose results are an extraordinary contribution to the study of aesthetics. Parallel to the change in the conception of the work-thing, the strengthening of the accent on the thing-related nature of the poetic word also occurred in Mukařovský’s works on poetic expression, which again created a common denominator with his writings on the work-thing. Some of Mukařovský’s thoughts on the “work-thing – work-sign – aesthetic object – artifact” are part of his envisioning of numerous new ideas in aesthetics internationally.
The text provides an overview of the theatre theory of Jiří Veltruský, focusing specifically on the development of his notion of the theatrical sign from his early texts published in the 1940s to his mature writings which appeared in the 1980s. The text demonstrates how Veltruský synthesises theoretical concepts from the works of Jan Mukařovský, Roman Jakobson, Karl Bühler, Ferdinand de Saussure and Charles S. Peirce to create his own dynamic concept of sign. This concept captures the specific qualities of theatre semiotics and avoids the shortcomings of the mechanical application of the linguistic notion of sign to art. Veltruský’s theoretical work is then contextualised within the semiotic theories of theatre by Roland Barthes, Erika Fischer-Lichte, Marco De Marinis, Keir Elam and Patrice Pavis, and is also discussed in relation to the paradigmatic change after the ‘performative turn’ in theatre and social studies.
CS
Studie podává přehled divadelní teorie Jiřího Veltruského se zaměřením na vývoj jeho koncepce divadelního znaku od raných textů publikovaných ve 40. letech až po jeho zralé studie z 80. let 20. století. Text ukazuje, jak Veltruský na základě syntézy teoretických konceptů z prací Jana Mukařovského, Romana Jakobsona, Karla Bühlera, Ferdinanda de Saussura a Charlese S. Peirce vytváří vlastní dynamické pojetí divadelního znaku. Toto pojetí jednak postihuje specifické kvality divadelní sémiotiky, jednak se vyhýbá nástrahám mechanické aplikace lingvistického pojetí znaku na umění. Veltruského teoretické dílo je následně zasazeno do kontextu sémiotických teorií divadla Rolanda Barthese, Eriky Fischer-Lichte, Marca De Marinise, Keira Elama a Patrice Pavise a také zhodnoceno ve vztahu k paradigmatické změně po tzv. performativním obratu v divadelní vědě a sociologii.
The study is devoted to the work of Lubomír Doležel, a linguist and literary theoretician, in light of his ninetieth birthday. Based of an analysis of two of his books, Studie z české literatury a poetiky (2008) and Fikce a historie v období postmoderny (2008) the study maps key concepts in his scholarly inquiry in the fields of Czech literature, history and metodology of the investigation of the Prague School, narrative semantics of fictional worlds and an application of the semantics to historical worlds.
Concepts associated with the Structuralism of the Prague School are usually considered to respond to trends in continental philology, philosophy, and aesthetics of the 1920s and 1930s. The phenomenology of Roman Ingarden is thus viewed as a key source of inspiration for the concept of ‘concretization’ coined by Felix Vodička, a concept which would become one of the key terms of literary history. This article focuses on a less explored issue concerning the notion of meaning developed by Ingarden in his Das literarische Kunstwerk and its potential influence on the idea of meaning developed by Jan Mukařovský during the 1930s. The comparison highlights an important difference between the two concepts of meaning. While Ingarden focuses on the heterogeneity of elements involved in the production of meaning, Mukařovský aims rather at developing a universal notion of meaning as a synthetic process that operates the same way on all levels of the literary text. In this case, the author tends to consider the notion of meaning only in vague and general terms, illustrating the production of meaning at the micro level and then claiming that the same processes can be found at all higher levels.
The article addresses problems of mediality in the context of the Prague School in its classical period. Drawing from John Guillory’s study “Genesis of the Media Concept”, we work on the hypothesis that new technical media and technologies exerted pressure in the theoretical discourse of the Prague School, via the mutual reflexion of the avantgarde (Nezval, Štyrský, functionalist architecture, the avantgarde theater) and Structuralist thought, to formulate a shift in the delimitation of art. First, we observe the variety of influences that the discourse on film and modern and avantgarde theater had on the Structuralist concepts of the sign, the understanding of the actor or of temporality in art. We further note the tension between linguistic and architectural functionalism in the Prague School thinking and how this tension translates into Mukařovský’s concept of the aesthetic function. Functionalist avantgarde architecture, as we observe, fundamentally influenced Mukařovský’s cultural anthropological theory of functions. On the basis of these converging factors, leading, among other things, to the growing strategic importance of the concept of communication, we conclude by characterizing what we call latent medial traces of certain notions and returning ideas of Prague School theories (apart from sign, the concepts of semantic gesture and unintentionality).
DE
Der Aufsatz widmet sich der Reflexion von Medialität im Kontext der „klassischen Periode“ der Prager Schule (1926–1948). Anknüpfend an die Studie von John Guillory Genesis of the Media Concept gehen wir von der Hypothese aus, dass neue Technologien und neue technische Medien Druck auf die Transformation des Begriffes „Kunst“ im theoretischen Diskurs der Prager Schule ausgeübt haben. Zuerst widmen wir uns dem Phänomen, wie die Reflexion des Films und des modernen und avantgardischen Theaters die strukturalistischen Überlegungen zu den Konzepten „Zeichen“, „Schauspieler“ oder auch „Temporalität in der Kunst“ beeinflusst haben. Weiters konzentrieren wir uns darauf, wie sich die Spannung zwischen dem linguistischen und architektonischen Funktionalismus in Mukařovskýs Denken widerspiegelt. Unserer Beobachtung nach beeinflusste die Avantgarde der funktionalistischen Architektur Mukařovskýs anthropologisch-kulturelle Funktionstheorie maßgeblich. Von der Charakteristik dieser verflochtenen Einflüsse, die sich u. a. dahingehend auswirken, dass der Begriff Kommunikation an Bedeutung gewinnt, gehen wir dazu über, was wir als latente Medialitätsspuren mancher Ideen und Begriffe der Prager Schule – das sind neben dem Konzept „Zeichen“ vor allem „semantische Geste“ und „Unabsichtlichkeit“ – bezeichnen.
This paper outlines the basics of the Prague School concept of language cultivation and main features of how it has been put into practice in the Czech Republic, and compares this approach with current language planning in Sweden. The paper aims at (1) placing the Prague School concept of language cultivation within the framework of international sociolinguistics, (2) pointing out that this concept contributes only partially to solving the language problems of contemporary societies, (3) outlining the possibilities of language cultivation in the post-modern era, while paying attention to language standardization, de-standardization and management. The author argues that the access of the Czech Republic to the EU will change the language situation of the country including the focus of and attitudes toward language planning.
The study explores the exchange of impulses and ideas between the three fields indicated in the title, presenting Petr Bogatyrev as their mediator. It is concerned, among other things, with Bogatyrev connecting the findings of French sociologically-oriented ethnologists, such as Emil Durkheim and Luciene Lévy-Bruhl, and German ethnologists (Hans Neumann) to the theories of the Prague Linguistic Circle and their influence of Jan Mukařovský’ sociology of art. The author focuses on the way in which Bogatyrev combines the formal and sociological perspectives, and applies them on different cultural phenomena (folk beliefs, folk art, high art) as they move between different cultural strata. Another point of inquiry is the collaboration of Bogatyrev and theatre director E. F. Burian, whose montage of folk poetry is presented in the paper as a theatrical enactment of Bogatyrev’s structural-functional method, i.e. the transformation of function, structure, and meaning in transition between folk and high art.
This volume aims at presenting several newspapers written in German, specifically the Prager Presse, Slavische Rundschau, Germanoslavica and Prager Rundschau, that were established in the interwar Czechoslovak Republic under the cooperation of members of both the German and Czech ethnic groups. The relation of these newspapers towards the Prague Linguistic Circle, which was covered especially by the Prager Presse, is discussed in detail in the main study, as well as the activities of the German members of the Circle who contributed to the given periodicals on regular basis, and of Antonín Stanislav Mágr, a paragon of scientific journalism as the members of the Circle called him. The author argues that the publishing and other activities of the newspapers and the Circle not only represent one step on the path towards the institution of modern scholarship, but also a means of its promotion and popularization. The study is supplemented by an annotated bibliography of the articles on the activities of the Circle in the Prager Presse, Slavische Rundschau, Germanoslavica and Prager Rundschau.
JavaScript is turned off in your web browser. Turn it on to take full advantage of this site, then refresh the page.