Ruská literatura: setkání a konfrontace
Russian Literature: Encounters and Confrontations

Author(s): Ivo Pospíšil
Subject(s): Recent History (1900 till today), Comparative Study of Literature, Russian Literature, 19th Century, Theory of Literature
Published by: Masarykova univerzita nakladatelství
Keywords: Russian literature; concept of foreigners in Russian literature; Russian classical and modern literature; Alexander Griboyedov; Fyodor Dostoevsky; Maxim Gorky; Nikolay Leskov; Valentin Rasputin; Evgeny Vodolazkin;
Summary/Abstract: This monograph contains texts covering diverse topics, including the conception of Russian literature in the works of the two founders of Slavonic studies, Slavonic literary history, Karamzin’s construction of new Russian literature, the participation of “foreigners” in the formation of Russian classical and modern literature, and the leaders of Russian classical literature such as Alexander Griboyedov, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Maxim Gorky and long-neglected Nikolay Leskov. Czech views of more recent literature from the second half of the 20th century (Valentin Rasputin, Evgeny Vodolazkin) are also included, along with consideration of the participation of Russians or, more generally speaking, Eastern Slavs in interwar Czechoslovakia (Alfred Bem, Valery Vilinsky, son of Masaryk University adjunct professor Sergey Vilinsky) and the opinion of the time not quite precisely called “the period of stagnation” (in Russian “period zastoay”). Even at that time there appeared interesting discussions with axiological shifts of emphasis which have often had a crucial influence upon further developments in Russia. And then some specific features of Czech Russian literary studies (“A Small Reflection…,” Jaroslav Burian) including Wollman’s polemic with the Poles on Pan-Slavism which, in the Czech environment, has often been connected – incorrectly – only with Jan Kollár. The volume concludes with considerations on the problem of terminology applied only to Russian literature, and a treatise on the universality of Russian literature and Russian literary scholarship in connection with their reception by Czechs in the 19th–21st centuries, including various controversies. If today Czech-Russian relations are again becoming a focus of attention – most of all hot button issues of a political nature which have not been sufficiently revealed and recognised – this work stands as a modest invitation to Czech Russian studies and the deep research on the so-called Russian phenomenon in general comparative contexts and other intersections based on genre, thematic, ideological, sociological, anthropological and philosophical studies, i.e. in the framework of area concepts. And this book should also stimulate reflection on the past, which might inspire new views of the present and encourage more long-term interest than the impressionistic and emotional digressions we have seen to date. Let us take this volume as an attempt at a small contribution to such a view and understanding.

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