3.  From Vision to Analysis: Literature in the 19^th Century and the Early 20^th
Century                             Lecturer: Jiří Kudrnáč




The lecture will first deal with the visionary nature of the Czech literature of the National
Revival period and of the two subsequent generations.  Attention will then be paid to the virtues
and shortcomings of Czech Realism. The works in question will be analyzed, mostly from a
comparative point of view. Then the lecture will deal with the period of transition, in which the
poetics of today’s literature began to develop. Attention will be devoted to the analytical,
critical and symbolic nature of Czech Fin de siècle literature and to new tendencies in early
twentieth century Czech literature, specifically Grotesque tendencies in the works of Jaroslav
Hašek.





Recommended literature:


·       Nosek, Vladimír. “Poets of the Czech Regeneration.” The Spirit of Bohemia. London: George
Allen and Unwin Ltd, 1926. 230-261.

·       Pynsent, Robert B. (ed.): Decadence and Innovation. Austro-Hungarian Life and Art at the
Turn of the Century. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London 1989, pp. 111-125.

·       Erben, Karel Jaromír. “The Willow” (poem)

·       Erben, Karel Jaromír. “The Daughter’s Curse” (poem)

·       Erben, Karel Jaromír. “Christmas Eve” (poem)