Arnošt Lustig a ti druzí

Author(s): Jiří Holý / Language(s): Czech Issue: 1/2018

This article examines changes in the Holocaust/Shoah presentation in literature throughout the several past decades. According to Alvin H. Rosenfeld, the Holocaust is not percieved as an authentic historical event these days and slowly becomes a shared symbol of evil or entertainment. Rosenfeld warns about the possible “end of the Holocaust” in public consciousness. Short stories and novels by Arnošt Lustig are good examples of these changes. Later books by the author accentuate the harsher side of life in the camps (violence, brutality, hetero- and homosexual prostitution, lack of unity among the prisoners etc.). He often records stories of young Jewish girls and women. Their beauty and youth form a moving contrast to the horrors of the Shoah. In the novelette Colette, for instance, many conventional images are used in the narrative. Credibility of presented figures disappears very often, they are “omnipresent” and “omniscient” almost like the famous Forrest Gump. By using various information and statements reproduced by these characters, the author constructs a kind of Auschwitz-Birkenau encyclopedia. The result of this is the loss of authenticity. At the same time, though, a lot of data of this “encyclopedia” is inaccurate. Lustig uses elements of thriller and romance. In works by other well-known authors who write about the Holocaust, various elements can be found: elements of thriller (Jonathan Littell), fantasy, comics, horror as well as porn films (Igor Ostachowicz). Literary texts by both Littel and Ostachowicz are full of violence, brutality and sexual scenes. Like Lustig, Jonathan Littell has created an encyclopedia of Nazi crimes during the WWII with implausible characters and situations in his novel The Kindly Ones. In contrast to Lustig and Littell, Night of the Living Jews by Ostachowicz is more original and impressive. It also brings actual questions concerning the past and relations between Poles and Jews.

Verzologické výskumy v Čechách a na Slovensku (Pocta Jiřímu Levému)

Author(s): Ladislav Franek / Language(s): Slovak Issue: 2/2017

The legacy of the Czech and Slovak study of the poetic structure from the 1930s to the 1960s (J. Mukařovský’s “semantic gesture”, M. Bakoš key function of the poetic rhythm). Their synthetic character under the influence of the principles of modern linguistics and Russian formalism. Literary history and historical poetics. The deepening of these starting points from the point of view of the needs of interliterary research. The objectivizing-logical criterion in respecting the specifics of national metrical systems. The contribution of J. Levý and his influence on the Slovak school of translation. His reflections upon a more integral perception of stylistic-rhythmical shifts in literary translation. The diversification of individual epistemological models according to the specificity of respective scholarly environments. The theory of literary communication in the inter-play of theory and empiricism in the works by A. Popovič. Slovak comparative literature research (D. Ďurišin) and its place in inter-literary research of L. Franek (the monograph Štýl prekladu, 1997; finished already in 1975). Inspirational exploration of the differences in the development of national literatures (French and Slovak). The striving for the unity of immanence and transcendence. Comparison with other metrical (e.g., Spanish) models. The violent interruption of the continuity of such research after the so-called “normalization” in the 1970s and the resulting problems in returning to these research models after 1989.

Zdeněk Kožmín interpretující: nad Máchovou znělkou „Tichý tis nad růži stíny sklání“

Author(s): Zuzana Urválková / Language(s): Czech Issue: 2/2016

The focus of the study is an analysis of the interpretative method of Zdeněk Kožmín, which is demonstrated on the example of Karel Hynek Mácha’s work. Kožmín’s explanation encompasses selected Mácha’s sonnets and other poetic texts. Methodologically, Kožmín follows Jacques Geninasca’s sonnet interpretations and other structuralist analyses.

Klasicismus v diskusi na stránkách Listů filologických

Author(s): Jana Vrajová / Language(s): Czech Issue: 1/2015

The article analyzes the discussion about Czech literary classicism in the journal Listy filologické. It is based on the currently ongoing research of discursivity of 19th century Czech and Slovak literature. The research showed that due to its interdisciplinary nature the Listy filologické journal became in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century an important platform for discussing issues and terminology specification of classicality and classicism in the Czech culture. With the remarkable scholar Arne Novak, the question of the nature of the Czech classicism came to the fore in the first half of the 20th century, which, unlike previous studies on this topic, was not primarily descriptive but analytical. Therefore it attracted attention of the classical philologist Jaroslav Ludvíkovský, who gave more precision to Novák’s definition of classicism in the Czech literature. Due to the violent ideological limitation of the intellectual influence of Czech classical philology in the second half of the 20th century, however, it was apparently not possible to prevent the gradual reduction of understanding of literary classicism.

Zobrazení vědomí fikčních postav v prózách Arnošta Lustiga

Author(s): Ingrid Chytilová / Language(s): Czech Issue: 1/2015

The study focuses on characters in Arnošt Lustig’s prose. It primarily focuses on the consciousness in fictional characters. As a theoretical basis we chose publications Poetics (2001) Shlomith Rimmon-Kenan, Story and Discourse (2008) Seymour Chatman, Individuals in the Narrative Worlds Uri Margolin and Transparent Minds: Narrative Modes for Presenting Consciousness in Fiction Dorrit Cohn. Aristotle’s concept of mimetic character, as an imitation of human beings, which followed formalist and structuralist poetics, consisted mainly of subordination “acting person” storyline. The relation of the characters to the storyline, so in the case of Lustig’s character is superiority characters story, because in narrative occupy a dominant position. We are interested in the interior world of the characters in autor´s prose. We observe consciousness of characters, emotions and experiences in the fictional world. The aim of the study observes ways of presenting the characters in the narrative, both from the point of view of the narrator, so from the perspective of the characters. Uri Margolin Individuals in the Narrative Worlds provides information that the person in the narrative can be regarded as a series of temporary conditions attached to each other.

Diskuse o realismu „o patro níž“. Pojetí realismu v myšlení Terézy Novákové a Sofie Podlipské

Author(s): Jana Vrajová / Language(s): Czech Issue: 1/2014

This study deals with educational texts of two Czech women writers who formed the spiritual climate of the Czech culture in the second half of the nineteenth century – Sofie Podlipská and Teréza Nováková. It demonstrates that the discussion of the varied and inherently dynamic nature of literary realism in the Czech lands was spread to a wider readership through the cultural education and the involvement of the forming women’s movement. The coexistence and the interpenetration of different discourses is particularly evident from the example of the analyzed magazine Domácí hospodyně (The Housekeeper). The initiative for its establishment came from a lingering romantic idea personified in Olomouc by Jindřich Wankel. The composition of the magazine, its focus and the personality of the editor Miloslava Procházková unequivocally refer to the Biedermeier period. This, however, did not prevent the publishing of articles and essays on realism and naturalism, or those advocating these movements.

Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk v českých diskusích o literárním realismu

Author(s): Martin Hrdina / Language(s): Czech Issue: 1/2014

Literary historians have hitherto generally adopted the idea suggested by some contemporary critics that literary realism only really established itself in the Czech lands around the mid-1880s, particularly in connection with Russian literary criticism and discussions over the work of Émile Zola. The aim of this study is to present a more precise description of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk’s position in Czech discussions over realism, thus contributing not so much to knowledge of the origins of Czech thinking on this literary phenomenon, as to that of censorship, which was one of the symptoms of the transition being made by Czech intellectuals from the Classicist-Romantic tradition to modern thinking. The first part considers the paradox between what the sources tell us and what history tells us in the evaluation of the realistic nature of the novel by Václav Vlček Zlato v ohni – Gold in the Fire. Masaryk’s argument, which endeavoured to cast doubt on the prevalent views that Vlček’s novel was a work that realistically represented the Czech world at that time, is viewed by the present study in terms of Masaryk’s aesthetic views, taking into account the context from which they emerged. The study not only presents fairly precise findings on the connections and differences between Masaryk’s views of realism and those of the previous generation of Czech literary critics, but it also indicates that rather than being a conflict between different conceptions of realism, in this case it was more a symptom of the forthcoming conflict between the rising generation of writers and those already established in Czech literary life.

Jak se dělá fikce slovy?

Author(s): Bohumil Fořt / Language(s): Czech Issue: 1/2014

The review of: Jiří Koten: Jak se dělá fikce slovy? Host: Brno, 2013

Reflexe antisemitismu v meziválečných prózách Egona Hostovského

Author(s): Milan Hanyš / Language(s): Czech Issue: 5/2020

This study analyses images of antisemitism in the interwar prose works Ghetto v nich (The Ghetto in Them, 1928), Případ profesora Körnera (The Case of Professor Körner, 1932) and Dům bez pána (House Without a Master, 1937), focusing on Hostovský’s representation of antisemitism at various levels (social, cultural and psychological), which is present to various degrees of explicitness in his works. It is generally the case in these prose works that Hostovský’s characters recognize and live out their Jewish identity whenever they experience exclusion and face hatred. Racial stereotypes and antisemitic prejudices go through the minds of non-Jews and Jews alike, and have a fundamental importance in the creation of the contradictory identity and selfunderstanding of Hostovský’s characters. The novels Případ profesora Körnera and Dům bez pána in particular show that the affirmation of Jewish tradition and identity may in certain situations be an indication of escape from responsibility and the dilemmas of human existence. In these prose works, assimilation, a return to the traditions of the ancestors or an attempt at individual emancipation are not adequate responses to antisemitism and the problems of life in a modern society. The only possible solution proves to be mutual solidarity among people who overcome their socially and culturally determined status by combining their strengths and strenuously endeavouring to achieve mutual comprehension.

Příbuzenství v pohybu

Author(s): Marcin Filipowicz / Language(s): Czech Issue: 5/2020

This study aims to analyse the representation of adoption in the novels of contemporary Czech prose writers Tereza Boučková (Rok kohouta, Year of the Rooster, 2007), Viktorie Hanišová (Anežka, 2015) and Dita Táborská (Malinka, 2017) within the context of cultural changes in the perception of kinship. The texts under review are examined from the standpoint of literary anthropology, taking special account of the category of literary representation. This study also reflects the pragmatics of literature, endeavouring to consider any influence of the literary representation of adoption on the creation of a society-wide normative climate for the various forms of socialbehavioural kinship. The basis for this is the finding that Czech literary prose over the last two decades has often sought answers to the issues surrounding the dynamic transformation of kinship and family structures. The old hegemonic model of the heterosexual couple bringing up their biological offspring has been “forced” to give up some of its social and cultural space to newly arising forms of family coexistence. One of the poles of conflict between the high visibility of biologically reproduced kinship and social-behavioural kinship is currently that of adoption. This study attempts to answer the questions over why these prose writers generally paint a negative picture of adoption, and why this subject has for so long been a blank space in Czech literary prose, and not least, whether in this case literature is just another medium that reinforces prejudices against adoption, playing a role in the social stigmatization both of adopted children and adoptive parents.

Čtenářská kultura

Author(s): Jiří Trávníček,Grzegorz Nieć / Language(s): Czech Issue: 5/2020

This study focuses on the concept of reading culture. The authors attempt to define its content and scope, while setting it within the context of contemporary issues (such as the digital revolution). They also take account of the key fixed ideas associated with the “reader” and “reading” concepts, while paying specific attention to the opposition of the empirical reader and model reader. They also base their conception of reading culture on a critical comparison with such associated concepts as book culture, written culture, literary culture and media culture, while focusing on the concept of culture itself, particularly on why they have decided on it, as culture might even be considered — in the sense of British cultural studies — to be anything that is communicated (read), and not just produced (written). Hence culture involves the circulation, range, extent and the entire ecosystem of relations and their media. It is the sphere of meaning that is received and not just emitted. One of the features of reading culture — according to the authors — involves the not entirely straightforward search for trace /testimonies, so the authors present a table showing individual trace /testimonies classified from direct empirical proofs to quite indirect ones. The main advantage of the reading culture concept is considered by the authors to be that it integrates all the activities associated with reception (direct and mediated, clear and disputed, complete and partial), so that it presents the entire range of personal testimonies, statistical data, institutions such as school and censorship, the book market and public libraries, discourse on reading, reader iconography and so forth.

Řád tvaru

Author(s): Lukáš Holeček / Language(s): Czech Issue: 5/2020

Kubíček, Tomáš. Řád tvaru: tradicionalistické časopisy v období první republiky (analýzy a rekonstrukce). První vydání. Brno: Host, 2020. 316 stran. ISBN 978-80-275-0295-0.

Verš raného Karla Tomana

Author(s): Robert Kolár / Language(s): Czech Issue: 1/2021

Following on from work by Miloš Sedmidubský, this study deals with syllabic irregularity (heterogeneity) in Toman’s (and Vrchlický’s) verse. It focuses on Toman’s early work, analysing individual poems and collections (particularly Pohádky krve, Tales of Blood, 1898 and Torzo života, Torso of Life, 1902). The material base is made up of 350 poems, and the differences between individual sets are checked by means of statistical tests. Syllabic irregularity is expressed in terms of entropy.

Očividná minulost

Author(s): Jan Malura / Language(s): Czech Issue: 2/2021

This study focuses on the poetics of historical narrative, based on a broad sample of 16th and 17th century Czech and Latin historical prose texts. It explores ways of representing space in chronicles, histories, hagiographic narratives and thematically structured historiographical prose works, and it follows the use of topographical information, detailed descriptions, vivid descriptions and ekphrases. Spatial representations can often be understood as a manifestation of what is called evidence, a rhetorical device capable of depicting absent objects as if they were right in front of the addressee’s eyes, and at the same time a method intended to lend credibility to knowledge.

Unpacking Identity: Travelling Cases as Theatrical Props

Author(s): Ilinca Tamara Todoruț / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2014

“All the suitcases that have appeared in this story are lying open on the stage,” reads a stage direction from Steigerwald’s Sorrow, Sorrow, Fear, the Rope, and the Pit. The suitcase may be the number one prop used in stagings of Eastern European drama, which after ’89 could speak openly about issues of physical displacement, either as refugees or as emigrants. What is the symbolism of the suitcase in connection with issues of identity, nationalism, migration, and border crossing, and how does it relate to a newer prop – the briefcase?

Bosna i Hercegovina u češkim književnim putopisima prve polovine 20. veka

Author(s): Aleksandra Korda-Petrović / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 2/2022

Travelogue records of Bosnia and Herzegovina from the pen of Czech authors can be traced back to earlier periods, but records with genre traits of literary travelogue can be seen only from the second half of the 19th century, to reach their expansion in the number and artistic quality in the 20th century. This will be influenced by non-literary factors, above all a different historical and political map of the Balkans, but also the formal and poetic characteristics of the travelogue genre. For the Czech travelogue writers, Bosnia and Herzegovina has not been identified with the Ottoman Empire since the beginning of the 20th century but is rather described as part of the Balkans inhabited by Slavic people who are viewed with affection and admiration for the rich folk tradition and heroic struggle for independence, while the Ottoman heritage in the culture and tradition of Bosnia is recognised as a particularly attractive exotics. Through the examples of the travelogues of Ludvik Kuba, Jiři Daneš, Jiři Mahen and Vaclav Fiala, the picture of Bosnia and Herzegovina is sketched, which the Czech travelogue writers in their time conveyed to their readers, but on the other hand, the outlines are given of the wider picture of the history, past, tradition and the culture of this country viewed from the angle of another. Finally, the analysis of selected literary travelogues also reveals an objective and subjective map of the encounter between the culture of Bosnia and Herzegovina and that of Czechia. In terms of the selected art form, these travelogues range from humorous and satirical stories, reportage reports, adventure reading, through photographic record commentary, folkloric and ethnographic studies, to deep intellectual and spiritual meditation.

Obrazová příloha I

Author(s): No name Anonymous / Language(s): Czech Issue: 54/2022

Zprávy Literárního archivu

Author(s): Petr Kotyk,Martin Firon,Helena Šebestová,Yvetta Dörflová,Milan Kodejš,Karol Bílek,Jarmila Schreiberová / Language(s): Czech Issue: 54/2022

GASTRONOMIA ROMÂNEASCĂ DIN A DOUA JUMĂTATE A SECOLULUI AL XIX-LEA, OGLINDITĂ ÎN JURNALELE UNOR SCRIITORI CEHI

Author(s): Diana Florentina Popescu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2022

The paper refers to three Czech writers from the 19th century who travelled to the Balkans and wrote about Romania: Vítězslav Hálek, Emanuel Salomon Friedberg-Mirohorský and Josef Štolba. Vítězslav Hálek wrote about Romania in Events in Černá Voda. Emanuel Salomon Friedberg-Mírohorský was a painter and officer in the Austrian Army, who spent almost seven months in Romania and wrote the book On the Danube to Romania. In his text Bucharest, Josef Štolba has detailed and admiring notes on the history, economy, literature and culture of Romania.

Ahmed Nurudin i Vojtech Had – i naše vrijeme

Author(s): Romana Benić Brzica / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 2/2019

Numerous similarities between novels Death and the Dervish by Mesa Selimovic and Jesuits by Jirij Sotola have been noticed by Ljudevit Bauer in the Literary Review back in 1970. Their common theme discusses the fate of man, representative of the religious order, dervish and Jesuits, who is in the conflict with his surroundings as well as with himself, the one who is torn between his own inclinations on one side and institutional, societal and church conventions, dogmas and restrictions on the other. Both novels tell the story of a human life, enquiring, existential powerlessness, inability to endure relativity of life and the fight with dark demons who lie in the foundations of every human personality, something which we all can relate to. Dwelling on their own thinking and their (burdened) consciousness, the main characters question their own time, and then, their analyses and doubts are no different from ours. The text’s main premise is a detrimental effect of a religious form on a life of an individual who is a part of it. The man is a victim of an order who has suppressed any possibility of his free life. The character of the religious orders can be presumed as repressive, both as an ideology as well as on personal and intimate plane. The novels speak of a past; however, they simultaneously confirm many negativities of our contemporary time. Such are the ideological conflicts, power struggles, moral instability and the feelings of imperil and absurdum. The consequences are dehumanization of a man, denial of humanism and the right for a free choice and the tragic alienation which aptly describes current times and the robot in it, the modern man.