“Ovid may have just waxed lyrical; but I – a writer of prose – tell the truth” Reconstructing the artistic practice of Prague aesthetician August Gott Cover Image

„Možná Ovid jen básnil. Avšak já prozaik mluvím pravdu“ Analýza zápisků pražského estetika Augusta Gottlieba Meißnera (1753–1807) jako rekonstrukce tv
“Ovid may have just waxed lyrical; but I – a writer of prose – tell the truth” Reconstructing the artistic practice of Prague aesthetician August Gott

Author(s): Michael Wögerbauer
Subject(s): Literary Texts
Published by: Památník národního písemnictví
Keywords: notebooks; creative practice; university environment; author’s archive; credibility of narrative; historiography; criterion of truth; authenticity

Summary/Abstract: On account of the newly prepared book edition of the notebooks of the writer August Gottlieb Meißner (1753-1807, professor of aesthetics in Prague from 1785 to 1805) this study addresses the problem of the extent to which this “author´s archives” (“avant-texte”), analyzed according to the methods of the French critique génétique, could serve as a source for the reconstructing of the art practice and perhaps the “practical poetics” of the author. The motto cited in the title of the study presents the starting point. In the opening part a source so far unknown is introduced. On the basis of the notes included in it, it is possible to reconstruct at least three filters through which the writing passes from the “avant-texte” to the printed version. The first part of the study (the first filter) analyzes what types of events (either personally experienced or received from various media) the author noted and how he evaluated them by the criterion of credibility. The second filter presented by the author asks which of the written notes could be used as a theme of the narrative and in what way such a theme should be adapted. The third stage (the third filter), through which a small amount of the original material passes, is represented by real re-working and publication in a suitable medium.

  • Issue Year: 2012
  • Issue No: 44
  • Page Range: 13-27
  • Page Count: 15
  • Language: Czech