“They Now Have to Create an Entirely Different Vehicle, if They Want to Catch Up with Other Nations...” Prague Literary Culture in Enlightenment-Era Travelogues
“They Now Have to Create an Entirely Different Vehicle, if They Want to Catch Up with Other Nations...” Prague Literary Culture in Enlightenment-Era Travelogues

Summary/Abstract: This article deals with the representation of literary culture in the Bohemian lands in late 18th and early 19th century travelogues as an influential literary genre of the late Enlightenment period. Against the background of their authors’ (mostly North and Central German travellers’) views on the Habsburg monarchy, the Bohemian lands and Prague in particular, as well as their education and art, the article seeks to analyse the variety of perspectives and the clash of external and domestic perspectives, as well as their description strategies. It draws attention both to the ideologisation and interconnection of the travelogue discourse and to the reactions of domestic authors to the travellers’ generalizing criticisms and their forms. To summarize, the article argues that the traditional classification of travelogues as predominantly pro- or anti-Slavic does not exactly hit the mark in this period, for travelogues do reflect the discussion on Czech literary culture in the Bohemian lands in statu (re-)nascendi in the context of local history and the enlightenment of the common folk.

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