Poetismus a kýč. Úvodní diagnóza
Poetism and kitsch. Initial diagnosis

Summary/Abstract: Until the mid ‑1950s and the advent of pop‑art, kitsch objects mostly gave rise to a sense of revulsion both among eminent artists and the experienced public. Kitsch was considered to be a secondary phenomenon in relation to “good” art, a poor imitation of art or at best art reduced to the level of banality. In spite of the famous statement made by Clement Greenberg that cultural phenomena like kitsch and the avant‑garde were separated by an insuperable abyss, we can easily find distinctive traces of a fascination with “degraded art” in several poems and theoretical texts by leading poetists. Studies show that Czech avant‑garde poets were not just great lovers of film, circus, variety theatre and adventure books. In order to make their poetry into more accessible works which did not demand intellectual effort and which the readers would enjoy, they sometimes made use of expressive means normally ascribed to popular kitsch. Close ties between poetist works and the basic principles involved in the creation of kitsch are illustrated in this study of examples from the poetry of Jaroslav Seifert, Vítězslav Nezval, Adolf Hoffmeister and Konstantin Biebl. Selected verses, or rather the poetic images found in them, were divided into three separate categories within Abraham Moles’s typology of kitch, i.e. religious kitsch, patriotic kitsch and exotic‑erotic kitsch.

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