Czech Reader Research Articles

Nuclear Challenges of Neglected Lessons of Chornobyl

The article is dedicated to the analysis of new nuclear challenges resulting from Russia’s nuclear blackmail and attacks at civic nuclear facilities in Ukraine. It is shown that Russia’s actions concerning civic nuclear facilities correspond to the criteria of nuclear terrorism and demonstrate the violation of the internationally accepted principles of non-proliferation and nuclear taboo. This attitude to potentially dangerous objects and behavior is rooted in the non-acceptance of the post-Chornobyl safety culture. For the Russian Federation, it is the exploitation of human fears of new nuclear disasters and radiation pollution. European and global communities in close cooperation with the Ukrainian authority, scientists, and civic society urgently need to work out efficient instruments to translate and convert nuclear fear and concern into efficient actions for the enforcement of international legislation in the sphere of nuclear safety and terrorism prevention and the empowerment of international institutions and organizations. Translated article was published for Czech readers in Ekolist (with small changes): https://ekolist.cz/cz/publicistika/eseje/jaderne-vyzvy-a-ignorovani-zkusenosti-z-cernobylu

Translating Intimate and Public Majakovskij into Czech Again: Why, and How?

ABSTRACT This study focuses on a new translation of selected poems of Vladimir Majakovskij into Czech and analyses it – after a brief summary of the characteristic features of Majakovskij’s poetry and his poetics. The new Czech translation, prepared almost 70 years after the last one, seeks, among other things, to challenge the image of Majakovskij as a servile follower of communist ideology and the bard of the Russian revolution, which persists in the Czech literary community and which has been reinforced by the controversial personality of the earlier ‘canonical’ Czech translator of Majakovskij, Jiří Taufer. The study seeks to identify the main points of departure of the new Czech translation and confronts it with the previous translation by Taufer, paying attention to its several problematic aspects. It is argued that the main ambition of the new Czech translation was to present Majakovskij unbiasedly as one of the most original figures in modern Russian/Soviet and world literature, while at the same time trying to rehabilitate Majakovskij in the eyes of Czech readers. The paper concludes by offering a new perspective on Majakovskij’s later, ‘revolutionary’ poems, which, despite their often highly political content, have lost none of Majakovskij’s typical qualities.

Lidská práva a pravoslaví: přehled a vyhodnocení současné debaty

In the Orthodox world, the debate on human rights has been one of the most interesting in recent years. There is an influential tendency among Orthodox priests, monks and laity to completely reject the idea of human rights as a mere Western invention without any cultural or spiritual basis among Eastern Christians. The critical problems are to be found in the different understanding of human dignity and the resulting emphasis on freedom or morality. Our task and question, therefore, is to identify the key points in this debate and to see what possible solutions to the existing dilemmas are available. In this article, we will attempt to map out the main players and arguments for the Czech reader, critically present and evaluate them.

Dušan Karpatský a česko-chorvatské literární vztahy

This paper deals with the contribution of Dušan Karpatský (1935—2017) to the reception of Croatian literature in the Czech Republic, and Czech literature in Croatia since the 1960s until the present day. In his numerous translations, Karpatský worked tirelessly to introduce Czech readers to the achievements of Croatian (and Yugoslav) literature, and vice versa. By selecting texts for his translations that were as current as possible, and by meeting high aesthetic criteria, made him influential in both cultural milieus where he played the role of an intermediary. His work in lexicography, bibliography, history of literature and non-fiction is also of great importance. His research has made Croatian culture permanently indebted to him because he discovered and translated into Croatian the Prague Papers, written in Czech by the Croatian politician Stjepan Radić, and because he discovered a seven-language dictionary written by the Prague Benedictine monk Peter Loderecker, which was based on a five-language dictionary written by Faust Vrančić. Owing to all of the above, and much more, Karpatský is considered a key figure in literary and cultural communication between Croatia and the Czech Republic in the last six decades.

Czech Readers between Benefits and Threats of the Algorithmic News Personalization

The paper describes how news consumers imagine an ideal state of personalization and which improvements they suggest. Our analysis shows that they primarily perceive the phenomenon of news personalization as a loss of control over search mechanisms and information delivery. They perceive themselves as a weaker part of a relationship characterized by an increasing information asymmetry. We base this finding on our qualitative analysis of respondents’ attitudes towards news personalization. Its goal was threefold: to understand how news personalization affects consumers’ trust in this technology, identify the reasons for potential consumers’ mistrust, and describe what needs and competencies news consumers perceive as necessary for protecting their personal data. Respondents expressed doubts about personalization credibility and described the respective algorithms as a “black box.” The data shows that personalized news consumers are concerned about personal data management. They are also very skeptical about the possibility of exercising their rights with the help of existing regulations. The paper formulates recommendations for the best practices in providing personalized news that considers the shared responsibility of providers and consumers of online content.

Slovenská literatúra a kultúra v českej publicistike Františka Votrubu (1909–1918)

Czech-Slovak reciprocity was an integral part of the personal life program of František Votruba (1880–1953), which began in his his early youth, when he decided to leave his native Bohemia and move to Slovakia for work. In 1902, he came to Ružomberok to participate in the the publication of the newspaper Slovenské listy, which the publisher Karol Salva published in 1897–1900 to promote Czech-Slovak reciprocity. In the middle of 1903, he accepted Milan Hodža’s offer to contribute to the the publication of the political newspaper Slovenský týždenník, newly founded by Hodža; he moved from Ružomberok to Budapest, where he lived until the beginning of 1911. He later joined of the “group of Pest residents”, which co-created a new form of Slovak politics and culture. Through Hodža, Votruba became acquainted with the Slovak agrarian movement. He identified with the opinion that support for the Slovak national program should be sought among the Slovak farmers; the Agrarian movement should support them by solving their economic and social problems. Votruba added to that principal program his own ideas: the farmers’ need for education and culture through popular and educational texts. From the end of the first decade of the 20th century until the war years, he published in Czech periodicals, informing the Czech public about Slovak political, economic, cultural and literary conditions; furthermore, he reminded Czech readers of the importance of Czech activities for the dynamism of Slovak life, suggesting tasks for Slovakia. His goal was to promote the efforts of the first and second generation of the Hlasist movement and their magazines Hlas, Slovenský obzor and Prúdy. His interpretation of the relationship between Slovaks and Czechs were creating a historical narrative and a myth.

Kawaii: fenomén roztomilosti v japonské kultuře a společnosti

The main objective of this study is to introduce the Czech reader to the hitherto unexplored phenomenon of cuteness (kawaii) in Japanese culture and society. The term kawaii, which is used to describe cute objects (toddlers, animals, mascots, toys), represents one of the most culturally persuasive aesthetics of the new millennium and is a significant economic driver of Japan’s cultural industry (manga, anime, fashion, music). In other words, kawaii is not a temporary fashion trend – it is virtually a ‘standard aesthetic’ that has permeated all areas of Japanese everyday life. In this study, I focus on three thematic units, namely psychology, aesthetics, and history of cuteness. Within psychology, I analyze kawaii as an intense emotional response to some significant stimulus that triggers a ‘maternal’ desire. Within aesthetics, I firstly focus on the stylized Japanese script, which started the kawaii fever in 1970s. Secondly, I point out the main specifics of Japanese product design with kawaii features and explain how kawaii aesthetics permeated the field of Japanese fashion. Thirdly, I focus on various mascots and animal characters that represent the main platform of kawaii aesthetics today, and demonstrate how Japanese authorities and institutions utilize this aesthetic to maintain the status quo. Finally, I offer a brief history of Japanese cuteness, which began in court literature of the 10th century and culminated in the second half of the 20th century.

Is the Right to Live in an Environment with Clean Air a Personal Interest? Selected Issues

This article attempts to synthetically discuss the right to live in a clean environment through the prism of the regulations on personal interests. The aim is to bring this issue closer to the Czech reader, which could be a contribution to the international academic discussion in this field. First, the author points to the socio-economic background of the current poor air quality in Poland, and then goes on to try to define a personal good and a clean environment. She then presents the relevant case law and the position of the legal scholarship in this respect, with a simultaneous attempt to determine the consequences of any discrepancies.

„...radosť z roboty samej a vedomie, že prácou pre Slovensko slúžili sme republike.“ K slovenskému pôsobeniu Františka Heřmanského z hľadiska česko-slovenských medzijazykových a medziliterárnych vzťahov

The paper focuses on the personality of the Czech secondary school teacher František Heřmanský (1887–1966) and his interwar activities in Slovakia concerning a broad sphere of education and culture. Several lines of his activity can be seen as part of the contemporary cultural policy in the field of Czech-Slovak interlingual and interliterary relations, where special attention was paid to the simultaneous development of Czech-Slovak and Slovak-Czech bilingualism and biliterarism. F. Heřmanský deserves special attention as the author of textbooks for both the Czech and Slovak schools. Being a classical philologist, he compiled Latin grammars and readers. On the other hand, he prepared multiple series of Slovak literary readers for secondary and grammar schools, thereby contributing to the creation of the Slovak and Czechoslovak literary canon and formation of collective identity in the First Czechoslovak Republic. His contribution in this regard has not yet been analysed. One line of his activity connected with his involvement in multi focused work of the Slovak cultural institution Matica slovenská was bound up with the need to provide the Slovak and Czech (Czechoslovak) education system with enough Slovak literary work. F. Heřmanský’s contribution to the cultivation of Czech-Slovak biliteracy is associated with the literary series Čítanie študujúcej mládeže [Reading for young students], intended primarily for Slovak students and, to some extent, also for Czech students. In the course of this work, F. Heřmanský became a textual lexicographer authoring Slovak-Czech glossaries that accompanied Slovak literary texts to help the Czech reader understand unfamiliar expressions. Appended bilingual glossaries represent a remarkable part of the Czech-Slovak interlingual and interliterary context of the time. F. Heřmanský also produced Czech-Slovak glossaries for his literary readers to help Slovak students read Czech texts. His Slovak textbooks, a wide range of his other texts written in Slovak and his Slovak-Czech and Czech-Slovak glossaries as well as translations (from Slovak into Czech and vice versa) demonstrate that F. Heřmanský was a distinctive bilingual and biliterary author. Through his translation activity he entered the controversial sphere of Czech-Slovak and Slovak-Czech mutual translation. His bilingual competence found its specific expression in the translation of Jiří Polívka’s important scholarly work Súpis slovenských rozprávok [Survey of Slovak fairy tales] (1923–1931) from Czech into Slovak and later in his literary translations of Ladislav Nádaši-Jégé’s works from Slovak into Czech. His other linguistic and literary activities included involvement in the preparation and publication of the official Pravidlá slovenského pravopisu [Slovak Spelling Rules] (1931), for which he prepared the first draft of the spelling dictionary. A closer look at the interwar work of F. Heřmanský, which has not yet received due attention, reveals the breadth of the cultural challenges as well as the political and ideological tensions and contradictions in the Czech-Slovak context of the time. This paper is framed by substantial excerpts from Česi a Slováci [Czechs and Slovaks], Heřmanský’s 1922 programmatic journalistic text, which illustrates his vision of the activities of Czechs in Slovakia and mutually beneficial Czech-Slovak relations.

Религиозные и моралистические сочинения в репертуаре типографии Даниэля Адама Велеславина

The author analyzes the publishing activity of the Czech typographer of the XVI century Daniel Adam Veleslavin, identifies the repertoire of publications, in particular the publication of religious and moralistic works, considers their role and place in the publishing products of the printing house and their significance for the Czech reader. Reference to sources, in particular to the bibliography of Czech publications, suggests that the printing house of Veleslavina produced moral and religious literature that did not have a narrow religious function, but it was always aimed at life practice.

Поэма А. Блока « Двенадцать » в чешской среде

Abstract This paper consists of confrontational analysis of two Czech translations of Alexander Blok’s famous poem “The Twelve”: one by Bohumil Mathesius published in 1925 (4th ed. 1977) which was considered canonical for many generations of Czech readers; and the most recent one published by Lubor Kasal in 2016. The present study tries to ascertain which translation is more accurate and closer to the Russian original and to identify the flaws and mistakes from the stylistic and semantic point of view which can be found in both translations. The paper discusses whether the two Czech translations under study render the same aesthetic experience for Czech readers as the original for its Russian readers. Both translations are closely examined with emphases on several important aspects: the semantic density of both the original and the Czech translations; the rhythm of the Russian poem and of its Czech versions; the choice of suitable equivalents in both translations. In the end, the assessment of Lubor Kasal’s Czech translation is overall positive, as it meets the requirements for the translator and his translation without serious reservations.

Н.И. КАРЕЕВ В ЧЕШСКОЙ И СЛОВАЦКОЙ ИСТОРИИ И ИСТОРИОГРАФИИ

This study deals with the reflections of personality and works of N.I. Kareev in the Czech and Slovak historiography. The contemporary historical science considers N.I. Kareev to be one of the most original and most important representatives of Russian scholarship in the field of social sciences during the late 19th–early 20th centuries. His interdisciplinary and manifold scientific interest in history, sociology, philosophy of history, culturology, and methodology of science has been reflected in the Czech and Slovak humanities. In 1895, N.I. Kareev published in Czech one of his most popular works “The Letters to Studying Youth” (‘Listy studující mládeží’). The introduction to this work, directly addressed to the Czech readers, was particularly valuable. N.I. Kareev’s second work “The Introduction to Sociology” (‘Úvod do sociológie’) was translated into Czech and published in 1907. His articles and the reviews of his works were published on the pages of several Czech journals. N.I. Kareev met in person with many historians, such as Jaroslav Bidlo, Jaroslav Goll, Josef Pekař, and Ľubomír Niederle, as well as with some politicians, such as Tomáš Masaryk and Karel Kramář. His scholarly works on the history of Western Europe were based on both his research on the Austrian Empire and his good knowledge of local realia (including the Slavic ones). After 1989, the Czech and Slovak scholars – historians, philosophers, and sociologists – became increasingly focused on the academic work of N.I. Kareev.

The Image of Russian Literature in Czech Literary Monographs of the 1920s

The article deals with the first Czech monographs on Russian Soviet literature, including in the context of classical Russian literature, published in the 1920s. With exceptional political and cultural pluralism in this golden era of Czech history, Russian writers were often perceived by Czech critics and researchers through the prism of the political views of the latter, as a result of which very different, if not opposite, interpretations of their works appeared. This is clearly seen in publications in periodicals of different orientations, which has been shown in our previous studies. The aim of this article was to find out how the views of the authors influence the vision of Russian literature and how the approaches to its study differ in this regard. The ideological orientation of the authors affected not only the interpretation of the work of Russian writers and the literary process as a whole, but also the structure of their works. František Kubka in the book Poets of Revolutionary Russia (1924) gave a philosophical vision of revolutionary poetry as a representative of the Slavophile nationalist wing considering poets of different ideological views. Jiří Weil in the book Russian Revolutionary Literature (1924) gave the Czech reader a panorama of Russian revolutionary literature as a bearer of socialist ideas, viewing Russian contemporary writers in terms of how well they managed to become genuinely in praise of the revolution. Augustin Alois Vrzal, being a Catholic priest, in the book A Brief History of New Russian Literature (1926) showed the history of Russian literature of the twentieth century, mainly from a religious position.

Жанровые инновации и рецепция Фаддея Венедиктовича Булгарина в чешской среде

Faddey Bulgarin (1789–1859) is one of the predecessors nad inspirers of new genre forms in the three spheres: in the formation of the genres of the moral-satirical novel, in the skaz narration and the specific genre forms of utopoia and dystopia. The kernel of Bulgarin’s science fiction is a descriptive, but inventive style, unimpressive construction of the plot, the elements of the sermon representing the fragments of utopian models as a counterbalance to post-romantic irony and sarcasm leading to the frustrating picture of the future world. Its paradigm mioving from the technological toěsards geerakl social and existential and to life skepticism of dystopia whioch gradually arises in Bulgarin’s prose fragments, prevailed in the Russian science fiction in the course of the whole 20th century and, to a certain extent, seemed to be dominant even in the 21st century. The term “moral-satirical” for the genre of Ivan Vyzhigin (1829) is not surprising: both the poles complemented each other. The inclination to the to the balancing of the lights and the shades, towards poisonous sarcasm and evolutionary way to the good – this is the basis of Bulgarin’s work. The peculiar “balance arithmetic”, a certain calculation was an object of sharp criticism. Bulgarin was, partly by right, suspected of servility towards the government, of the improvement, the idealization of social situation. The author attacks, above all, the debauchery and social impotence of aristocracy based on the would-be efforts of the government “to widen the space of reason and education”. He exactly defined the opening scissors between the autocracy and family aristocracy after December 1825. Bulgarin’s hero moves in a wide social and geographical space, but the key episodes take place in the environment of merchants and entrepreneurs of a small town or in a province of the landowner’s way of life; the majority of the readers of Bulgarin’s novels and novellas/short stories come from this very environment. On the boundary of the 1820–1830s Bulgarin demonstrates the unstoppable influence and power of the middle class which got an immense impulse after the defeat of the Decembrists. Bulgarin cultivates the genre of the skaz novella or short story, the original narrative which anticipated the similar narrative forms in the creation of N. S. Leskov, A. Remizov, and V. Shukshin. In the Czech environment he was up to the mid-19th century more popular than Pushkin himself. The scenery and social background of his prose works, adventurous plots, the refinement of a specific narrative technique attracted the attention of his readers. The Czech translations are archaic, now nearly not readable, containing many Russisms and mistakes in translation, inaccuracies and deformations, but nevertheless there the translations which acquainted a Czech reader of the period of the Czech national revival with the works of this Russian prose writer.

Życiorysy czytelnicze zarys koncepcji

ŻYCIORYSY CZYTELNICZE ZARYS KONCEPCJIProjekt badawczy życiorysów czytelniczych — jego zaplecze i rezultaty, stosunek do biografistyki. Myślenie narracyjne i lektura, opowieść biografi czna. Potencjał życiorysów czytelniczych.LIFE STORIES OF READERS AN OUTLINE OF A CONCEPTBetween 2007 and 2013 the author carried out extensive statistical surveys of reading in the Czech Republic, the results of which were published successively in 2008, 2011 and 2014. At the same time, between 2009 and 2015 he collected 138 life stories of readers from across the country, representative of the various generations as well as social and professional groups. This material has made it possible to distinguish and describe four generations of readers: 15–24, 25–44, 45–64 and over 65, and to point to key phenomena concerning Czech readers — specific works and authors as well as attitudes to reading in general.The concept of life stories, a unique variety of biographies, on the one hand is based on a chronological interview script, the objective of which is to reconstruct the development of specific readers, and on the other it provides for a degree of freedom and spontaneity of expression, which also reveal an emotional attitude to reading. Another important feature is a strong historical and social context of reading across society. Sources produced as a result significantly complement typical memoirs and letters, which feature reading-related themes, as well as statistical surveys.

Translating the Biggles stories for Czech readers: a case of moderate transposition

ABSTRACTDespite their Britocentric orientation, translations of Captain William E. Johns’s Biggles stories have been well received outside the United Kingdom. One country where Biggles is quite popular is the Czech Republic. Some passages in Biggles Goes to War, however, set in an invented small Ruritanian-type country located at the eastern edge of Europe, might be seen as causing problems for Czech readers. In her Czech version thereof Alena Petruželková’s approach is to transpose the action to somewhere in the Middle East, changing many of the names, while leaving the storyline unchanged, even down to details, and adding a degree of vagueness. Transposition to the Middle East also opens the door to a treatment from the point of view of Orientalism. Following Henry Whittlesey’s framework for handling a wide variety of transpositions, this paper will ask whether Petruželková’s own transposition has succeeded in preserving the original flavour of Biggles Goes to War. The answer is generally positive, with one or two reservations.

Analýza školního vzdělávání ve vybraných zemích EU

The study discuses research strategy toward the partial aim No. 2 of the project LC 06046 Centre for basic research on schooling. The main task of this partial aim is to prepare and publish analytical single studies of three different educational systems – Germany, Great Britain, Sweden. It this study we discuss why we consider systems of these three countries to be of different type of school structure. The single studies are to be published for the Czech readers and the comparison of the educational system in every country with Czech educational system will enrich the national debates on innovations of Czech schooling. The methodology and a structure of the single studies is also presented in this text.

Stát a společnost pohledem Emila Lederera

The purpose of this article is to introduce czech readers to the two most important sociological writings of emil lederer. lederer’s contributions, especially in the field of political sociology, are particularly impressive. after being almost completely forgotten, the works of this social scientist are finally being rediscovered. I will first give a short introduction to lederer’s life, then present two of his texts: On the Sociology of World War (1915) and The State of the Masses (1939). Both of these texts contain a surprisingly unbiased and unique analysis of the situation leading up to both World War I and World War II.

Text comprehension in Czech fourth-grade children with dyslexia

Abstract In the Czech Republic, the concept of dyslexia is used as a global term for various developmental deficiencies relating to reading skills. The criteria used for dyslexia are not clear and intervention is solely focused on word reading training. Not much is known about the pattern and level of reading comprehension abilities among Czech readers. The study examines reading comprehension and its component skills (decoding and listening comprehension abilities) in 32 Czech fourth-grade children with a formal diagnosis of dyslexia and their classmates (N=126). In decoding tests, the children with dyslexia surprisingly lagged behind most significantly in a task concerning speed and accuracy in context reading. Contrary to expectations, the children with dyslexia also showed inferiority in a listening comprehension task. In reading comprehension measures, in comparison to the typically developing readers, the children with dyslexia achieved the best results in a oral reading comprehension task. The results are discussed with respect to Czech counselling and educational practice and the need for changes in the current support system and terminology is stressed.

De Leeuw van Vlaanderen in het Tsjechisch: waarom zo laat en waarom driemaal?

Abstract The Lion of Flanders in Czech language: why that late and why trice?The work of Hendrik Conscience has in Czech language a fairly sizeable reception dating, however, almost completely from the period before World War I. Remarkably, his most important work, De Leeuw van Vlaanderen, has been translated as late as in 1932, 1935 and 1936 into Czech, in three different translations. In the nineteenth century, Conscience has been regarded first as a fighter for Flemish equal rights. In the second half of the century, he was known rather as a popular social Catholic author. As whom Conscience was considered by Czech readers just before World War II? The contribution tries to give an answer.