Възроденият Осиан
The Reborned Ossian

Summary/Abstract: The article examines the model function of Macpherson’s Ossian poems in the Czech National Revival. It is focused on the phenomenon of “presenting” the glorious past of the nation by the construction of a written relic as a cultural and historical monument. This was the main function of The Manuscript of Dver Královi and Zelene hora (1817, 1818). While Macpherson and Blair construct the Ossian poems as a representation of an ancient epoch separated from the present by the timeless voice habitation of the bard, the forgers of The Manuscript emphasize the direct presence of history (in its relationship to the orality and in the form of material artefact, the deliberately fragmented text) in the life of the revival movement. In this way, the ideological and political nature of their work can be demostrated. But in spite of effort to produce The Manuscripts as a support of claims for ancient Czech rights and lands, the language constructed by the forgers deconstructs itself and reveals the utopian orientation of nationalist ideology. This aspect is reflected in the poetry of Karel Hynek Mácha which radically rewrites the tropes of the nationalist discourse as well as the cliches of late Ossianism (e.g. in the story “Wahnsinn und Tod” by Ernst on Houwald).

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