Josef Karásek jako historiograf slovanských literatur: metodologická koncepce a dobové přijetí jeho Slavische Literaturgeschichte
Josef Karásek as a Historiographer of Slavic Literatures: Methodological Concepts and Concurrent Reception of his Slavische Literaturgeschichte

Summary/Abstract: Though the history of Slavic Studies is more of a peripheral part of Slavic philology, more intensive research in this area regularly takes place above all on the occasion of life milestones of significant Slavic Studies scholars. This contribution is oriented toward Josef K a r á s e k , a somewhat forgotten Czech student of the Jagić Slavic Seminary in Vienna, a literary historian, editor, translator and promoter of Slavic literatures in the German-speaking world. The year 2008 marks the 140th anniversary of his birth. Karásek’s primary work, Slavische Literaturgeschichte I-II. (1906; Slavic Literary History), has thus far received little attention from either local Slavic Studies scholars or those abroad. These scholars had dismissed the monograph as an unsuccessful and, because of the publisher, G. J. Göschen, predetermined for failure due to its a priori limited nature (lacking Russian literature, the history of which had already been compiled by J. Polonskij). This study thus attempts again and in more thorough manner to answer the questions of to what degree Karásek was successful in his attempt to synthetically capture the history of Slavic literatures as a self-contained vibrant organism, how the specialized critics of the time reacted to him, and what place he holds in the history of Czech Comparative Literary Studies. Above all it is necessary to emphasize that even given the monograph’s shortcoming mentioned above, which was not Karásek’s fault, and in spite of the unsuitable, even drastic shortening of the original text at the express request of the publisher, it contains several remarkable moments, observations, and superior elements – in contrast to those which were more detailed, but skeptical toward the Slavs: Istorija slavjanskich literatur I-II. (1879-1881; The History of Slavic Literatures) by A. N. Pypin – W. D. Spasowicz or the fundamental Slovanské literatury I.-III. (1922-1929; Slavic Literatures) by J. Máchal. All of these volumes, however, treated the individual Slavic literatures in a parallel manner without exception, due to a confrontational version of the history of Slavic literatures as a singular, graspable integral whole.

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