Czech Modern Research Articles

České moderní umění v pojetí Miloše Jiránka a Emila Filly

The paper follows how and in what context the development of Czech modern art was characterized by two leading theorizing artists: painters Miloš Jiránek and Emil Filla. Special attention is paid to their conception of the Czechness of art, which they both dealt with. In his thinking, Filla was basically directly following Jiránek, but the dramatic political circumstances that were projected into his view, whether willingly or unwillingly, shifted his thoughts in a different direction.

Czech Catholic modernism The renewal of Catholic literature combined with social and ecclesiastical reform

In Central Eastern Europe the theme of the modernist crisis in the ecclesial milieu is still a hotly debated topic. In the Czech lands this phenomenon differs in a number of moments from other countries, for instance in that the Czech reformers openly called themselves modernists willingly since 1895, as the protagonists of the revival movement of Catholic literature. This study is divided into three parts. The first one outlines the development of Czech historiography of the modernist and anti-modernist crisis in the Czech lands, which has undergone a dynamic development especially in the last thirty years. In the second part, it summarizes its results and the current state of knowledge of this historical phenomenon. The author focuses here on the specific and unique elements of Czech modernism, for the understanding of which a broader historical context of the church history of the Czech lands is necessary. In the third part the author presents the current challenges and prospects of research in this area.

Czech Catholic Modernism The renewal of Catholic literature combined with social and ecclesiastical reform

In Central Eastern Europe the theme of the modernist crisis in the ecclesial milieu is still a hotly debated topic. In the Czech lands this phenomenon differs in a number of moments from other countries, for instance in that the Czech reformers openly called themselves modernists willingly since 1895, as the protagonists of the revival movement of Catholic literature. This study is divided into three parts. The first one outlines the development of Czech historiography of the modernist and anti-modernist crisis in the Czech lands, which has undergone a dynamic development especially in the last thirty years. In the second part, it summarizes its results and the current state of knowledge of this historical phenomenon. The author focuses here on the specific and unique elements of Czech modernism, for the understanding of which a broader historical context of the church history of the Czech lands is necessary. In the third part the author presents the current challenges and prospects of research in this area.

VASYL STEFANYK IN CZECHIA: LIFETIME PERCEPTION IN REWIEWS AND TRANSLATIONS

The paper traces the perception of Vasyl Stefanyk’s works in Czechia, from the fi rst mention of him by Ivan Franko in the monthly “Slovanský přehled” in 1898 to the obituaries of the writer, who passed away at the end of 1936. Th e research outlines the genre spectrum of Czech publications concerning Stefanyk’s works (translations; reviews in periodicals; scholarly, educational, and reference editions) and the circle of authors that paid attention to Stefanyk’s writings. In particular, it specifi es the authorship of A. Proházka’s and V. Prach’s works assigned by cryptonyms. Stefanyk’s writings aroused the interest of the authors representing various literary directions and groups: Czech Modernism (František Šalda), the decadent periodical “Moderní revue” (Arnošt Proházka), a group of anarchist rebels (Stanislav K. Neumann), and the Masaryk’s movement of ‘realists’. Th e decadents and ‘rebels’ even showed a special aff ection for the Ukrainian author, as they were the fi rst to translate him in their magazines and published the writer’s earliest and most complete lifetime Czech collection “Povídky” (“Stories”) in 1905. Th ere were fi ve Stefanyk’s books published in the writer’s homeland during his lifetime, but the biggest attention of the Czech translators was drawn to the collection “Th e Little Blue Book”, and among the short stories – “Th e News”, “He Committed a Suicide”, “Maple Leaves”, and “My Word”. Among well-known translators were Karel Rypáček, Jaroslav Rozvoda, and Rudolf Hůlka. Alois Koudelka, Jan Máchal, Vincenc Charvát published critical works exploring the expressionist style and existential issues of Stefanyk’s works. Czech critics oft en took guidance from the discourse on Stefanyk represented by I. Franko, B. Lepkyi, and Lesia Ukrainka. Perception of Stefanyk’s writings developed into an engaging study of the writer’s works in the institutionally branched and aesthetically diff erentiated cultural environment of Czechia in the interwar 20th century. Th is interest helped to establish a closer CzechUkrainian literary dialogue.

Protocol matters: A need for standardized procedure in cementochronology

Cementochronology has long been associated in the literature with a high correlation between chronological and estimated age, and low differences between the two ages. The excessive accuracy was rather suspicious, and the method did not even appear in common forensic practice. An important step towards more widespread use of the method is the need to standardize work procedures, including indexes for recording the quality of cementum, preparation of thin sections and the age calculation. In our study, we used the standardized protocol for the preparation of thin sections in a set of Czech modern teeth of known age and sex. In the initial phase, 11.5% of the teeth were discarded due to severe caries in the medial part of the root. In a set of single extractions (55 teeth from 55 individuals), we focused on the detailed results of the age estimation, using precision and accuracy indicators. We also used different dental development data to calculate age, given inconsistencies in the use of eruption / mineralization. In a set of multiple extractions (68 teeth from 22 individuals), intra-individual variability was examined. The result of the application of the standardized protocol is an estimate of age with an absolute inaccuracy of −1.7 years and a relative inaccuracy of 5.4%. Calculation of precision and accuracy in the set of single extractions, however, showed the method’s limitations: the imprecision measuring the variability of cementum increments counts increased with chronological age, as did the inaccuracy. The use of different dental development data did not significantly increase the accuracy of the age estimation results. Intra-individual variability remains poorly understood – in the set of multiple extractions the differences within one individual ranged between 0.9 and 10.8 years.

VASYL STEFANYK IN CZECHIA: LIFETIME PERCEPTION IN REVIEWS AND TRANSLATIONS

The paper traces the perception of Vasyl Stefanyk’s works in Czechia, from the first mention of him by Ivan Franko in the monthly “Slovanský přehled” in 1898 to the obituaries of the writer, who passed away at the end of 1936. The research outlines the genre spectrum of Czech publications concerning Stefanyk’s works (translations; reviews in periodicals; scholarly, educational, and reference editions) and the circle of authors that paid attention to Stefanyk’s writings. In particular, it specifies the authorship of A. Proházka’s and V. Prach’s works assigned by cryptonyms.
 Stefanyk’s writings aroused the interest of the authors representing various literary directions and groups: Czech Modernism (František Šalda), the decadent periodical “Moderní revue” (Arnošt Proházka), a group of anarchist rebels (Stanislav K. Neumann), and the Masaryk’s movement of ‘realists’. The decadents and ‘rebels’ even showed a special affection for the Ukrainian author, as they were the first to translate him in their magazines and published the writer’s earliest and most complete lifetime Czech collection “Povídky” (“Stories”) in 1905. There were five Stefanyk’s books published in the writer’s homeland during his lifetime, but the biggest attention of the Czech translators was drawn to the collection “The Little Blue Book”, and among the short stories — “The News”, “He Committed a Suicide”, “Maple Leaves”, and “My Word”. Among well-known translators were Karel Rypáček, Jaroslav Rozvoda, and Rudolf Hůlka.
 Alois Koudelka, Jan Máchal, Vincenc Charvát published critical works exploring the expressionist style and existential issues of Stefanyk’s works. Czech critics often took guidance from the discourse on Stefanyk represented by I. Franko, B. Lepkyi, and Lesia Ukrainka. Perception of Stefanyk’s writings developed into an engaging study of the writer’s works in the institutionally branched and aesthetically dierentiated cultural environment of Czechia in the interwar 20th century. This interest helped to establish a closer Czech-Ukrainian literary dialogue.

Prezentace německo-českého umění ve stálých expozicích Národní galerie v Praze

The aim of this article is to show how the National Gallery presented the German–Czech artists and in which way it interpreted them in its presentation of national modern art. The article points out the issues of the canonisation of Czech modern art and how the politics influenced the art history and why it was so complicated to add the German–Czech artists in the Czech art history even after 1989.

The Figure of Ophelia in Expressionist Poetry: German and Czech Comparison

The study deals with the rendition of the figure of Ophelia in Czech modern poetry in comparison with the poetry of European Expressionism. The image of Ophelia’s aesthetic death from Shakespeare’s drama Hamlet has influenced and inspired a whole range of artworks. It strongly reverberated in German Expressionist poetry, especially that by Georg Heym, Gottfried Benn and Georg Trakl. The Czech poets who approached this topic in the spirit of Expressionism include Jan Skácel, Vladimír Holan and Jiří Orten. The study further addresses these works in the light of the Ophelia complex as defined by Bachelard.

Landscape as a National Symbol. Říp Mountain, Blaník Mountain, the River Vltava and the River Elbe and Their Role in Shaping the National Identity in the Final Stage of the Czech National Movement

The paper deals with the role of the landscape in the shaping of the national identity in the final stage of the formation of the Czech modern nation. The topic is treated through the perspective of two pairs of Bohemian landscape features (Říp and Blaník Mountains, and the rivers Vltava and Elbe), both rich in symbolism. This concept was further highlighted by the travelling panel exhibition Story of Landscape at the Nation’s Service, which was held in the Lapidarium of the National Museum in the autumn of 2018. The present text is based on the research of literature and period sources (collection items) located in the National Museum Library and in the Historical Museum of the National Museum. The author presents the landscape as an important national symbol which has assumed this function through its relation to stories based on national history. The landscape is perceived here not only as a real (physical) environment, as a scene where a wide range of national and later tourist activities took place, but also as a symbolic space closely connected to the ideas of individuals within the national society.

Neviditelná krajina v Nezvalově poezii 20. let

What is noticeable in the 1920s, when Czech modern poetry and Vítězslav Nezval in particular express their avant-garde quests through the felicitous poetic program, is the aesthetic distancing from the romantic melancholy and respectively from the interpretation of landscape as an object of contemplation and a mediator between the human soul and the universe. The preference of poetism for civilization diversity and metropolitan dynamics and its superficial disregard for nature are the reasons why this aspect of Vítězslav Nezval’s poetry has remained outside the field of literary research so far. The main objective of this paper is to discover and outline the manifestations of artistic treatment of nature in Nezval’s poetry even when he denies its place in modern poetry in general. The paper focuses on those transformational processes of anti-mimetic nature through which the image of the landscape is no longer perceived as a reflection of the real entities of nature but as a fictional entity based on the principle of collage.

カレル・タイゲによる「ポエティズム」の造形概念について : チェコにおける近代デザインに関する研究(1)

カレル・タイゲによる「ポエティズム」の造形概念について : チェコにおける近代デザインに関する研究(1)

„Byl to život na sopce, život pod závalem, život v tekoucí lavině”. O „dysydenckim getcie” według Pavla Kohouta

The main intention of the presented article was to find and indicate thoughts connected to the dissident tradition of Czech 20th century history. The generational experience regarding the „drunken festival” of Prague Spring and brutal intervention of „fraternal help” have influenced a non-official side of Czech modern culture. Literary works, as well as publicist activities in the period 1968–1989 prove that the political opposition has become a very important subject for many writers. In the article, I am referring to above indicated novel written by Pavel Kohout. In his text, the writer, known as one of the most important founding members and architects of the informal civic initiative called Charter 77, has managed to describe an atmosphere of Czech „normalization” and nonofficial ways of rebelling, fighting against the communistic ideology in Czechoslovakia before the Velvet Revolution in November 1989.

Czech modern painters: (1888-1918)

Czech modern painters: (1888-1918)

Cubism's Sex: Masculinity and Czech Modernism, 1911–1914

Among those who interest themselves in modernism in the context of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Prague is sometimes referred to as the “second city of cubism.” In 1911, at a time when the style was still largely unknown in Europe, an artists’ group devoted to the defense and promotion of the new art was founded in Prague. The members of theSkupina výtvarných umělců,or Visual Artists Group, wrote extensively about cubism in their journalUmělecký mesičník[Art Monthly] as well as in other publications. They sponsored numerous exhibits of the art at home and participated in shows of Czech cubist art abroad. In February 1914, Prague was the site of the largest show of cubist art anywhere in the world up to that time.

Novák's Lucerna and the Historiographical Problem of "Czech Modernism"

The opera Lucerna (premièred 1923) by the Czech composer Vitězslav Novák demonstrates the problematic position of Czech music in the historiography of the early twentieth century, since neither "avant-garde" nor "antimodernist" suffice for it as stylistic labels. A leader of Czech modernism during the fin de siècle, Novák's music embodies the aesthetic crisis his generation faced after 1918. Lucerna's score reveals a complex negotiation of multiple stylistic influences, including impressionism, folklore, and Strauss, paralleling the Czech community's hesitant acceptance of international modernism in the early interwar period. The opera's lack-lustre finale echoes the contemporaneous return to Czech traditional values, using Smetana as an anachronistic model for modernist opera.

Living in Peace? Degenerate Art and Czech Modernism in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia

Living in Peace? Degenerate Art and Czech Modernism in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia

Character Formation: A Forgotten Theme of Comenius's Didactics

THE GOAL OF this brief study is to present Comenius's notion of character formation as it is outlined primarily in his didactic writings, and to show its relevance for contemporary practice in relation to moral education. The Czech Jan Amos Comenius was a 17th-century Brethren bishop, philosopher, and educator who is celebrated especially for his timeless didactic principles, which earned him the epithet “the teacher of nations.” The subgoal of this paper is to explain why Comenius's concept of moral education has been neglected in Czech modern Comeniological research biased by Communist ideology.

Francophilie et identite tcheque (1848-1914) (review)

Reviewed by: Francophilie et identité tchèque (1848-1914) Míla Šašková-Pierce Reznikow, Stéphane. Francophilie et identité tchèque (1848-1914). Histoire Culturelle de l’Europe N° 2. Paris: Honoré Champion, 2002. Pp. 754. ISBN2745305964 Francophilie et identité tchèque deals with years that were crucial for the political and cultural reestablishment of the Czech nation, the so called Czech National Renaissance (České národní obrození.) 1848-1918. After 1618, when the Czech Kingdom became a hereditary part of the Austrian Monarchy, and especially after Ferdinand II the Catholic secured in the bloody Thirty-Years-War the Czech throne for the Hapsburgs, Czechs hoped for political and national autonomy. In the beginning of the 19th century, the Czech intellectuals started to ask first for cultural and political rights. After the European Spring of the Nations, in which Czechs took part in the brutally suppressed Prague uprising, the Czech National Renaissance came back in force. One of its aspects was Antigermanism and Francophilia. Francophilie et identité tchèque traces the evolution of the Czech Francophilia through the romantic admiration for French revolutionary ideas and political culture at the end of the eighteen century to the multifaceted relationships on every political and cultural level in the pre-WWi Czech society. Francophilie et identité tchèque has four parts: Part I (1848-1879; Une inscription occidentale non-allemande; four chapters), Part II (1879-1902; 1848, naissance de la francophilie; two chapters), Part III (1902 – 1914; L 'impuissance du lobby francophile; three chapters) Part IV (Une demande de la civilization française; three chapters), and a conclusion. There then follows a thorough bibliography both of primary documents and secondary works consulted. [End Page 163] For the French side of Czech French relations, the author studied an impressive number of documents in the Archives du Ministère des affaires étrangères in Paris, the diplomatic archives in Nantes, and the Municipal Archives in Paris. The Czech primary sources consulted were those of the Náprstek Museum (Czech emigration and Czechs abroad), the Prague Municipal Archives, and the Archives of the Czech Literary Museum, the National Museum, the State Central Archives and the Archives of Charles University, all in Prague. In addition the archives of the town of Jičín (Instruction of French in Czech schools and Alliance Française in the Czech Lands) and the Jesuit Archives in Rome were consulted. The secondary works cited are those of Czech and French political and cultural personalities, of first and second and even third order. In addition, there is an important bibliography of almost 200 press articles that span the period under study. This bibliography constitutes an important resource for any student of this formative period in the Czech nation's history. The Czech and Slovak national revival movements have been the subject of many Czech studies, often encompassing a wide spectrum of political agendas. However, the French role was in need of study, especially since there is a paucity of the French assessment of the Czech National Renaissance. This book under review, therefore, constitutes a welcome addition to the field of modern Czech history. Francophilie et identité tchèque outlines step by step how from the 1848 Spring of Nations to 1918, the year of Czechoslovak national independence, Czechs turned to France in their search for political and cultural support. In its beginnings Czech Francophilia was defined primarily as a counterpart to the Germanophobia of the Czech nationalism, however over the second-half of the 19th century France became the ideological and cultural inspiration for the Czechs. The ideals of democratic equality as expressed by the French political philosophy were yearned for by the Czechs. The nascent Czech modern literature wanted to shake off the role of an epigone of the German and Austrian literary movements. Of course, Czechs were not alone in their admiration of France; paradoxically they followed the German fascination with French writers and philosophers. From 1848 on French influence became a constant in the Czech culture. Czechs feared the emerging political Pangermanism, since the Czech Kingdom had been one of the Holy German Empire Electors and for a long time on the list for annexation to...

Staging Language: Milča Mayerová and the Czech Book Alphabet

Celebrated in histories of Czech modernism, the 1926 book Alphabet has received little sustained attention. Structured as a mock syllabary, Alphabet thematizes the pedagogical zeal of the historical avant-gardes and simultaneously discloses the avant-garde resistance to legibility through its emphasis on “letters as such.” Milča Mayerová enacted that exemplary paradox forcefully with her impersonation of letters in dance. Yet her poses failed to read as letters except when printed photographically alongside the book's text and typography. That insufficiency is theorized here as a critique of autonomous language, the masculinist ideal that motivated Mayerová's mentor and coauthors.

Prague-Vienna, Prague-Berlin: The Hidden Geography of Czech Modernism

In response to his banishment to barbaric Tomis, on the Black Sea, in 8 C.E., Ovid composed theTristia,entreaties to Emperor Augustus to permit his return to civilized Rome. Feeling equally alienated from fin-de-siècle Vienna, the Czech expatriate poet, Josef Svatopluk Machar, produced the slim collectionTristium Vindobona.One poem, “První dojmy” (First impressions), finds Machar's narrator and alter ego tormented by visions of an otherworldly and unattainable Prague. “Na Kahlenbergu” (On Kahlenberg) takes the narrator to the eponymous hill outside Vienna, where he invokes his distressed land to the north. The legacy of Habsburg dominion over the Czechs appears to him as a “wide and bloody path“ spanning historical battlegrounds from Diirnkrut, near Vienna, to the White Mountain, west of Prague. Czech critics in 1893 hailedTristiumas both a literary and a political event, its stature enhanced by its publication under the “shadow of bayonets,” that is, during an official state of emergency in Prague. The young critic Emanuel z Čenkova raised only an amicable objection in his review inLiterární listy:Machar's narrator could easily come home—eluding reverie and history—since “express trains cross like lightning” between Vienna and Prague.