Poetika a estetika českého strukturalismu v pojetí Herty Schmidové
The poetics and esthetics of Czech structuralism as conceived by Herta Schmidová

Summary/Abstract: The first part of Struktury a funkce (Carolinum, Prague 2011) by Herta Schmidová presents the theory of Prague structuralism in seven loosely connected studies, and focuses on the poetology and esthetics of Jan Mukařovský. It adopts and develops his ideas, but also carries on its own dialogue with them. In the study entitled „The three ­stage model of Czech literary ­studies structuralism“ the author confronts the first (formalistic) with the second (semiotic) stages of Czech structuralism and raises the need for a third stage, i.e. a turn to the work as a non -sign, as manifested in Mukařovský’s study „Intentionality and Unintentionality in Art“. The third stage, „the work as a thing and a non -sign“ is then interpreted by the author as Mukařovský’s anti- -sociological and anti -Saussurian turn, aimed at a „new structuralism“. In her paper „Agreements and differences between Czech structuralism and postmodern thinking“ the author finds similarities between Derrida’s conception of the structure as „a system without determinable boundaries and in a state of constant self -transformation“ and Mukařovský’s esthetics, which—in contrast to his poetics—works with the concept of an open structure. However, despite all the similarities of certain elements (i.e. openness of structure) Mukařovský’s anthropological functionalism is fundamentally different from Derrida’s poststructuralism in its idea of the subject as a „generative centre of all social norms“. The issue of the subject is extensively examined in the paper „Approaches to the subject in Prague structuralist anthropology and the genetic structuralism of Ernst Cassirer“. Both conceptions are linked by the anthropological project, which the author assigns to the enlightenment tradition and rounds off as a polemic against the devaluation of the human subject in postmodernism and poststructuralism. Both Cassirer and Mukařovský credit man with self -realization skills with regard to his biological and social environment. In both cases these skills are conceived as powers that are called functions. The source of these functions is in both cases the subject. Mukařovský shared faith in man as a polyfunctional being with Cassirer, while prioritizing the esthetic function. The problem of the individual in Czech structuralism is clarified by the author in her paper of the same name from several standpoints. Basically, the following problem areas are dealt with here: 1. anthropological functionalism, 2. the literary work of art as an individual, 3. the role of the individual in the history of literature, 4. the author of the work as an individual and personality. The author has devoted extraordinary attention to the internal and external aspects of the „semantic gesture“, a key term in Czech structuralism. In the paper „Is there a conflict between Mukařovský’s concept of poetics and esthetics?“ the author returns to an issue that also concerned her in her first study: she believes that Mukařovský’s ...

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