Czech literature is the literature of the historical regions of Bohemia, Moravia, and the Czech-speaking part of Silesia, (now part of the Czech Republic, formerly of Czechoslovakia). This most often means literature written by Czechs, in the Czech language, although Old Church Slavonic, Latin, and German were also used, mostly in the early periods. Modern authors from the Czech territory who wrote in other languages (i. e. German) are generally considered separately, and their writing usually existed in parallel with Czech-language literature and did not interact with it. Thus Franz Kafka, for example, who wrote in German (though he also knew Czech rather well), falls within Austrian literature, though he lived his entire life in Bohemia. 2005 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December- → Deaths in August August 31: Michael Sheard August 26: Lord Fitt August 24: Jack Slipper August 24: Maurice Cowling August 24: Dr. Tom Pashby August 23: Brock Peters August 22: Lord Lane August 21: Robert Moog August... Literature is literally acquaintance with letters as in the first sense given in the Oxford English Dictionary (from the Latin littera meaning an individual written character (letter)). The term has generally come to identify a collection of texts, which in Western culture are mainly prose, both fiction and non-fiction... Bohemia. ... Moravia in relation to the current kraje of the Czech Republic Moravia (Czech and Slovak: Morava, German: ( (help· info)), Hungarian: Morvaország, Polish: Morawy) is a historical region in the east of the Czech Republic. ... Prussian Silesia, 1871, outlined in yellow; Silesia at the close of the Seven Years War in 1763, outlined in cyan (areas now in the Czech Republic were Austrian-ruled at that time) Silesia (Polish: , German: ( (help· info)), Czech: ) is a historical region in central Europe. ... Czech (ÄŒeÅ¡tina) is one of the West Slavic languages, along with Slovak, Polish, Pomeranian (extinct), and Lusatian Sorbian. ... This article is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... Kafka redirects here. ... !This article is in the process of being edited! The efforts are part of the German wikipedias winter article review. ...

Middle Ages

9th century

The first known literature in the Czech lands originates in the 8th century AD, in the kingdom of Greater Moravia. The saints Konstantin (Cyril) and Methodius, sent by the Byzantine Emperor Michael III to complete the Christianization of the kingdom, created there the first written Slavic language, Old Church Slavonic, written in the Glagolitic alphabet. Their lives were spent in the effort to join together Eastern and Western Christian cultural traditions, and thus their translations of Latin liturgy into Slavonic are the earliest surviving literature created in the Czech lands. However, they met with stiff opposition from the Germanic priests already active in Bohemia, and shortly after their deaths, Slavic mass was forbidden, Latin reinstated, and the literary tradition in Greater Moravia terminated. Great Moravia (Old Church Slavonic approximately Велья Морава, Czech Velká Morava, Slovak Veľká Morava, Latin Magna Moravia) was a Slav state existing on the territory of present-day Moravia and Slovakia between 833 and the early 10th century. ... Saints Cyril and Methodius painted by Jan Matejko. ... This coin struck during the regency of Theodora shows how Michael was less prominent than his mother, who is represented as ruler alone on the obverse, and even than his sister Thecla, who is depicted together with the young Michael on the reverse of this coin. ... This article is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Tablet inscribed with the Glagolitic alphabet The Glagolitic alphabet or Glagolitsa is the oldest known Slavonic alphabet. ...

10 – 11th century

After the collapse of Greater Moravia at the end of the 9th century, the political and cultural orientation of the Bohemian lands shifted from Byzantium to Rome. Very little is known about the next two centuries of literary development - fragments of works exist, but many are imply inferred from citations in works found elsewhere. The main cultural center of the period is the monastery at Sázava, which served as a point of exchange between Russian and Byzantine culture and Western, Roman ideas. The close of the century, however, heralded the ultimate victory of Latin over Old Church Slavonic as the official language of liturgy and culture in the Bohemia and the shift of cultural alliance for all the Czech lands from east to west. The Legend of Christian, written in Latin verse in the latter half of the 10th century, describing the lives of Saint Ludmila and Saint Wenceslas is the greatest surviving work; its authenticity is under some dispute, however. St. ... Wenceslas (or Wenceslaus; Czech: Václav; German: Wenzel), styled Wenceslas I, Duke of Bohemia (b. ...

12 – 14th century, Luxembourg dynasty

In Přemyslid Bohemia of the 12th and early13th centuries, all preserved literary works are written in Latin. The main types of literature of the period were chronicles and hagiography – descriptions of lives of the saints intended to be read aloud. Bohemian hagiographic works focus exclusively on Bohemian saints (Sts. Ludmila, Wenceslas, Procopius, Cyril and Methodius, and Adalbert), although numerous legends about Bohemian saints were also written by foreign authors. The most important chronicle of the period is the Chronia Boeemorum (Bohemian Chronicle) by Kosmas, a compilation of history colored though the needs of the political rulers of the time, serving to legitimize the ruling dynasty. Kosmas’ work was updated and extended by several authors in the latter part of the 12th and during the 13th centuries. PÅ™emyslid coat of arms. ... Saint Adalbert may be referring to: Adalbert of Prague Adalbert of Magdeburg This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Cosmas Cosmas of Prague (c. ...

During the first part of the 13th century, the Přemyslid rulers of Bohemia began to expand their political and economic influence westward and came into contact with the political and cultural kingdoms of Western Europe. This cultural exchange was evident in literature through the introduction of German courtly poetry, or minnesang, in the latter part of the 13th century. After the murder of Wenceslas III and the subsequent upheavals in the kingdom in 1306, however, the nobles began to distance themselves from Western culture and looked for literature in their native tongue. Despite this, German remained an important literary language in Bohemia until the 19th century. Minnesang was the tradition of lyric and song writing in Germany which flourished in the 12th century and continued into the 14th century. ... Wenceslaus III Premyslid (Czech and Slovak Václav, Hungarian Vencel, Polish WacÅ‚aw), (October 6, 1289 – August 4, 1306) was the king of Hungary (1301 - 1305) and king of Bohemia (1305 - 1306). ...

This new literature in Czech consisted largely of epic poetry of two types: the legend and the knightly epic, both based on apocryphal tales from the Bible, as well as hagiographic legends of earlier periods. In addition to epic poetry, lyric poetry also appeared during the course of the 14th century, generally in the form of religious songs. These tended toward simplicity of form of content on one hand, and striving toward maximum expression on the other. The first development of prose also took place during this period: administrative and teaching texts, which necessitated the development of a more extensive and specialized vocabulary (the first Czech-Latin dictionaries date from this time), and extensive chronicles, of which the Chronicle of Dalimil, written roughly 1309, and Chronicon Aulae Regiae (the Zbraslav Chronicle), are the two best examples.

15th century, Hussites

The Hussite revolution of the 15th century created a definite break in the literary evolution of Czech literature and forms its own separate history within Czech literature as a whole. The aim of this literature was mainly to communicate and argue for a religious doctrine – the form was generally prose. Jan Hus’ theological writing first appears at the beginning of the 15th century and the later literature of the period can be most easily divided by the religious conviction of its authors: the Catholics, the moderate Prague faction of Hussites, and the radical Taborite faction. Hus wrote first in Latin, later in Czech and this divide remained for much of the later period: poetry and intellectual prose used primarily Latin, whereas popular prose was written in Czech and German. Hus’ writings center on technical, theological questions; however, he did publish a set of his Czech sermons and created a style of writing and grammar that would later be used to create the foundations of modern Czech in the 17th and 18th centuries. His Postila, a tract on religion, remained one of the most oft-printed books until the 17th century. His follower Jakoubek of Stříbro also compiled his own sermons as Výklad na Zjevenie sv. Jana (An Explanation of the Appearance of St. John), one of the largest works of the 15th century. Only fragments remain of the literary works of the radical Taborite faction – Mikuláš Biskupec z Pelhřimova wrote the most significant works, Latin apologia defending the Taborite doctrine. Petr Chelčický was an oddity of the period – he worked in isolation but in his youth had been a radical Hussite. His work, Siet viery (The Net of Faith) is a scathing critique of the contemporary Church and society, a call to a new kind of basic Christianity. In general, Hussite writings differed from the preceding era by their focus on social questions – their audience was the common people and lower middle classes. The third faction, the Catholics, also wrote works defending Catholicism and attacking the Hussite ultraquists - Jan Rokycana was the leading figure. The Hussites comprised a Christian movement following the teachings of the reformer Jan Hus (circa 1369–1415), who was influenced by John Wyclif and became one of the forerunners of the Protestant Reformation. ... Jan Hus/John Huss, (circa 1369 - 1415) was a Czech (now the Czech Republic) religious thinker and reformer. ... The Taborites (Czech Táborité, singular Táborita) were members of a religious protestant community centered on the Bohemian city of Tábor during the Hussite Wars in the 15th century. ... Petr Chelčický¹ (ca. ... Jan Rokycana, also known as Jan z Rokycana and Jan z Rokycan (c. ...

In addition to prose works, the Hussite period for the first time truly developed the genre of religious songs as replacement for Latin hymns and mass: the largest surviving compendium, the Jistebnický kancionál (The Jistebnice Hymnal), contains Czech translations of Latin liturgy, religious hymns, and songs to be sung at vespers.

Humanism

After the election of George of Poděbrady to the Czech throne following the Hussite wars, a new cultural wave swept into Bohemia: humanism, which saw in the classics of antiquity the ideal of literature and culture. The roots of humanist thought reach back to the court of Charles IV, who brought Italian scholars to his court, but its flowering is associated with the rule of the Jagiellon dynasty and later Habsburg rulers until the Battle of White Mountain. The main feature of the literature of this period is the competition between Catholic and Protestant thought, and the influence of the printing press, which made written works more accessible and thus slowly changed the status of literary work in society. The new humanistic writing also laid heavier demands on the Czech language and thus created a richer and more complex grammatical structure and vocabulary based upon Latin. The use of Latin became restricted to the Catholic schools, whereas German was confined to the German Protestants living in Bohemia. George of Podebrady - statue in KunÅ¡tát (Czech Republic). ... Humanism is a broad category of active ethical philosophies that affirm the dignity and worth of all people, based on our ability to determine what is right using the qualities innate to humanity, particularly rationality. ... The name Charles IV is used to refer to numerous persons in history: Kings: Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV of Spain, king of Spain Charles IV of France, king of France Charles IV of Hungary, king of Hungary Other: Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine This is a disambiguation... The Jagiellons were a royal dynasty originating in Lithuania, which reigned in some Central European countries between the 14th and 16th century. ... Flag of the Habsburg Monarchy; also used as the flag of the Austrian Empire until the Ausgleich of 1867. ... The Battle of White Mountain, November 8, 1620 (Bílá hora is the name of White Mountain in Czech) was an early battle in the Thirty Years War in which an army of 20,000 Bohemians and mercenaries under Christian of Anhalt were routed by 25,000 men of the... Protestantism is a general grouping of denominations within Christianity. ... The printing press is a mechanical device for printing many copies of a text on rectangular sheets of paper. ...

Of the Latin-speaking humanists, the most important were Bohuslav Hasištejnský, (Ad sanctum Venceslaum satyra (Complaint to St. Wenceslas), and Elegia de peregrinatione sua (Elegy of his Wanderings)); and Jan Dubravius, (De nuptiis Mercurii et Philogiae (The Marriage of Mercury and Philology) - an extensive encyclopedia of the free arts, Theriobulia (The Congress of Animals) - a didactic-political poem written for king Ludwig Jagiello, Historiae Regno Bohemiae...libri XXXIII (History of the Bohemian Kindgom...in 33 volumes) - a similarly themed book for the emperor Maxmilian of Habsburg, and the technical manual De piscinis (On fishponds)). Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II Maximilian II of the Habsburg dynasty was born July 31, 1527 at Vienna and died October 12, 1576 in Regensburg. ...

At the apogee of humanism, Czech writings focused more on teaching and popular books. Jan Melantrich founded a Czech printing house in Prague, and his son-in-law and heir, Daniel Adam of Veleslavín ran it for a period of some 20 years. During this time, Veleslavín supported and encouraged the whole of humanistic literary efforts of his time, and his influence on both the quality of works and the language used were decided. Other notable Czech-speaking humanists were Viktorin Kornel z Všehrd, (O práviech, o súdiech i o dskách země České knihy devatery (Nine Volumes on the Laws, Judgments, and Land Decrees of the Czech Lands) and Václav Hájek, whose Kronika Česká (The Czech Chronicle), which, although not based upon critical evaluation of sources, continued to serve as fodder for many generations of Czech writers. The pinnacle of Czech humanist efforts was the Hussite-led complete translation of the Bible: Biblí České, commonly called the Kralická Bible.

Baroque

The defeat of the Czech Protestants at the Battle of White Mountain decidedly affected Czech literary development. The forceful re-Catholicization and Germanization of Bohemia and the ensuing confiscations and expulsions virtually eliminated the Protestant middle classes and split the literature into two parts: the domestic Catholic and the émigré Protestant branches. Unlike other European countries of the time, the nobility in Bohemia was not a part of the literary audience and thus this split of literary effort led to a certain lack of development of Czech baroque literature in comparison to other European countries of the time, especially in genres that were written for noble courts (love and occasion poetry, stage works, etc.)

The largest personality of Czech evangelical baroque writing is Jan Amos Komenský, who spent his youth in Bohemia but was forced into exile later in life. He was a pedagogue, theologian, reformer of schools, and philosopher; his works include language textbooks, theoretical tracts about education, and works on theology. His Labyrinth of the World and Paradise of the Heart, a literary parable of turmoil in human existence at the beginning of the 16th century, remains a period classic. With his death in the early 18th century, Protestant literature in Czech virtually disappeared. Adoration, by Peter Paul Rubens: dynamic figures spiral down around a void: draperies blow: a whirl of movement lit in a shaft of light, rendered in a free bravura handling of paint. ... Comenius on a Czechoslovak 20 koruna banknote Jan Amos Komenský (Latinized Comenius) (March 28, 1592, in Moravia (now the Czech Republic) – November 15, 1670, Amsterdam, the Netherlands) was a Czech teacher, scientist, educator and writer, known as teacher of nations. ...

Catholic baroque works span two types: poetry and prose. Poetry of the Catholic baroque is concerned largely with religious hymns. The largest figures of the genre were Adam Michna z Otradovic (Loutna česká, Česká mariánská muzika, and Svatoroční muzika (The Czech Lute, Czech Marian Music, and Christmas Music)), Fridrich Bridel, and Václav Jan Rosa, who laid the groundwork for the rules of metered poetry in Czech and compiled the Thesauras linguae Bohemicae (A Treasury of Czech Language), the first etymological dictionary of the Czech language. Baroque prose focused mainly on homiletic prose, hagiography, and historical accounts; Bohuslav Balbín was the leading figure with his Miscellanea historica regni Bohemiae (Miscellany from the History of the Bohemian Kingdom), a 20-volume encyclopedia of Czech history. The new Jesuit order also commissioned a new translation of the Bible known as the St. Wenceslas Bible, which, despite its intent, directly continued the work of the Bible Kralická and even earlier Hussite translations. Bohuslav Balbín (3 December 1621, Hradec Králové - 28 November 1688 in Prague), was a Czech writer and Jesuit. ... The Society of Jesus (Latin: Societas Iesu), commonly known as the Jesuits, is a Roman Catholic religious order. ...

Reawakening

At the close of the baroque period, a new trend in thinking emerged: enlightened classicism, which sought to apply the principles of science to all aspects of daily life. In literature, this meant a renewed interest in prose novels, in history and the historical development of a national culture. A culture in one’s own language began to be seen as the prerequisite for the unification of a nation. In Bohemia, the religious sources that had inspired Czech baroque literature of the 17th and the first half of the 18th century slowly dried up and literary development stagnated due to the absence of Czech nobility and a middle class that could support literature in the national language. However, at the close of the 18th century, the Bohemian lands went through a considerable change – the Habsburg emperor Joseph II ended feudalism and instated a new religious and ideological tolerance. This was reflected in the literature as a renewed interest in rediscovering and reinstating the Czech language and history. Both the audience and the background of creators of literature evolved from priests and monks to the laity and general public and even the very definition of literature changed, from encompassing all written works to the idea of artistic literary expression. Bohemia, however, remained within the sphere of Austrian and German cultural influence, and thus the new national literature developed inside of and in response to the German culture preferred by the state. Czech literature thus evolved from first mimicking popular German genres and only later to independent creative efforts. Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II Joseph II (March 13, 1741 – February 20, 1790) was Holy Roman Emperor from 1765 to 1790. ... Roland pledges his fealty to Charlemagne; from a manuscript of a chanson de geste. ...

From the first half of the 18th century, initial efforts to reevaluate the previous era using scientific methods were made in Bohemia, seeking out the myths in Czech history. These first scientists banded together into private scientific societies, allowing them to share information and knowledge. Among the most notable authors were Josef Dobrovský (who codified the grammar of the Czech language through his Ausführliches Lehrgebäude der böhmischen Sprache (Complete Grammar of the Czech Language)), and Antonín Jaroslav Puchmayer (one of the first poets to systematically develop Czech poetry). Drama and the theater also served as an arena in which to develop the new Czech literary culture – at first, mostly by imitation of popular Viennese plays, later through original productions. Václav Kliment Klicpera was the greatest playwright of the period. Josef Dobrovský (August 17, 1753 - January 6, 1829) was Bohemian philologist and historian, one of the most important figures of the Bohemian national revival. ... This article needs to be wikified. ...

One of the challenges of this generation was the genre of popular fiction, because the literary public simply was not there - in order to begin to cultivate a readership for Czech literature, Matěj Václav Kramerius began to publish a newspaper in Czech and ran a publishing house, whose book production encompassed popular fiction as well as translations of foreign language classics.

1800s - Czech classical literature

Pre-romanticism

Pre-romanticism formed the transition between enlightened classicism and romanticism – pre-romantics did not completely abandon the emphasis on forms drawn from antiquity, but relaxed the strict separation between the genres and turned away from didactic genres toward more lyric, folk-inspired works. The epitome of these efforts was “ohlas” poetry, which sought to create works indistinguishable from authentic folk literature. It was during this period that the idea of a truly national literature and culture developed as a rejection of Bernard Bolzano’s vision of a bi-lingual and bi-cultural Czech-German state. Classicism door in Olomouc, The Czech Republic. ... Romanticism was a secular and intellectual movement in the history of ideas that originated in late 18th century Western Europe. ... Bernard Bolzano Bernard Placidus Johann Nepomuk Bolzano (October 5, 1781 – December 18, 1848) was a Czech mathematician, theologian, philosopher and logician. ...

The era is often named after Josef Jungmann, who translated many classics of world literature and spent his life establishing Czech literature as a serious, rich literature capable of great development. His handbook Slovesnost aneb Sbírka příkladů s krátkým pojednáním o slohu (A Collection of Examples including a Short Essay on Writing) served as the standard grammar handbook for the next two generations of writers. František Palacký and Pavel Jozef Šafárik took up the challenge of revising Czech history, building upon the work done by Dobrovský, but focused on the earliest history of the Czech lands in the context of Slavic history as a whole. As part of the effort to establish the pedigree of Czech literature, Czech historians of the time sought evidence of heroic epics of the Middle Ages. They appeared to find such evidence in the Rukopis královédvorský and Rukopis zelenohorský (The Manuscript from Hradec Králové and Zelená Hora, respectively), although both were later proved to have been falsified. These manuscripts sought to emulate epic poetry by incorporating mythology from Hájek’s history of the Bohemian kingdom and as such are effective poetry in their own right. Joseph Jungmann (Nov 12, 1830-Nov 25, 1885) was a German Jesuit professor and writer from Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia Jungmann entered the German College in Rome in 1850, and was ordained there in 1855, before joining the Society of Jesus. ... FrantiÅ¡ek Palacký (June 14, 1798 Hodslavice, Moravia, today Czech Republic – May 26, 1876), Czech historian and politician. ... Pavel Jozef Å afárik (Safáry / Schaffáry/ Schafary/ Saf(f)arik / Å afarík/ Szafarzik, Czech Pavel Josef Å afařík, modern Slovak Pavol Jozef Å afárik, German Paul Joseph Schaffarik, Latin Paulus Josephus Schaffarik, Hungarian Pál József Saf(f)arik) (13 May 1795 in Kobeliarovo, Slovakia (at that...

Lyric poetry was the chief poetic genre of the time – the greatest poet of the time was Jan Kollár, who in Slávy dcera (The Slav Daughter) created an ideal hero journeying throughout the Slavic countries discovering his own inner life and the commonalities shared by Slavic nations. František Ladislav Čelakovský was the chief proponent of “ohlas” poetry, poetry based upon folk forms but incorporating modern themes. However, by the end of the period this type of poetry began to be criticized as hindering the development of modern poetry and was abandoned for the ideal of fully romantic expression. Ján Kollár (1793 - 1852) was a Slovak writer (mainly poet), archaelogist, scientist and politician. ... FrantiÅ¡ek Ladislav ÄŒelakovský (1799-1852) was a prominent Czech poet and scientist. ...

Romantism – Biedermeier

By the 1830s, the foundations of Czech literature were laid and authors now began to focus more on the artistic merits of their work and less on developing the idea of Czech literature and culture as a whole. During this time period two main types of literature were produced: literature of the Biedermeier, which strove to educate the reader and encourage him to be a loyal subject of the Austro-Hungarian empire, and romanticism, which emphasized the freedom of the individual and focused on the subjective and subconscious thoughts of an individual. Representatives of the two types of thought critiqued the approaches of the other, but also incorporated them into their work. Karel Hynek Mácha was the foremost of the romantics, and the influence of his work Máj (May) lasted well into the turn of the century. The lyric-epic poem focuses on the thoughts and life story of a convicted murderer awaiting his unavoidable execution, and who thus serves as the ideal romantic hero. Josef Kajetán Tyl was foremost a stage author of the period, but his literary magazine Květy (Blooms) (1833–45) provided a forum for other artists to publish. In fact, newspapers in general became a forum for other authors of the period – Karel Havlíček Borovský gained great fame through his newspaper columns and satires. Biedermeier architecture Biedermeier refers to work in the fields of literature, music, the visual arts and interior design in the period between the years 1815 (Vienna Congress), the end of the Napoleonic Wars, and 1848, the year of the European revolutions and contrasts with the Romantic era which preceded it. ... Official languages Latin, German, Hungarian Established church Roman Catholic Capital & Largest City Vienna pop. ... Romanticism was a secular and intellectual movement in the history of ideas that originated in late 18th century Western Europe. ... Karel Hynek Mácha (16 November 1810 – November 5, 1836) was a Bohemian romantic poet. ... Josef Kajetán Tyl (1808–1856) was a significant Czech dramatist and songwriter. ... Portrait of Karel Havlíček Karel Havlíček Borovský (Borová, today Havlíčkova Borová October 31, 1821 - Prague, July 29, 1856) was a Czech writer, poet, critic, politician, journalist, and publisher. ...

Of the great authors more oriented toward the Biedermeier ideal, the first, Karel Jaromír Erben, focused on preserving Czech folklore; he collected and systematically organized folk songs and fairy tales. His main original work, Kytice (The Bouquet), used these as a basis for a collection of ballads. Božena Němcová, the first great female Czech author, also collected folk fairy tales, but her greatest work, Babička (Grandmother), presents an idealized picture of life in a Czech village. Karel Jaromír Erben (7th of November 1811 – 21st of November 1870) was a Czech poet and writer of the mid-19th century, best known for his collection Kytice (Czech for The Bouquet), which contains poems based on traditional and folkloric themes. ... Božena NÄ›mcová born on 4 February 1820 in Vienna, died on 21 January 1862 in Prague, was one of the most influential Czech writers of the National Revival movement. ...

Almanac May

The year 1948 brought to the fore a new generation of Czech authors who followed in the footsteps of K. H. Mácha and who published their work in the new almanac Máj (May). Unlike the contemporaries of Jungmann, who heavily criticized the almanac, these authors saw people as unfettered by national borders and ideologies, and rejected the narrow ideal of a national culture for one that incorporated Czech literature into European culture and drew inspiration from the progress made outside of the Czech lands. These authors, however, also saw the changes in society since the poem Máj had been published, and so their work also commented on the encroachment of industrialization and focused increasingly on the ordinary life as opposed to the unfettered romantic ideal. In order to secure their own futures, these authors also saw it as their mission to educate and improve the quality of their readers by presenting their audience with progressive themes and quality work.

Vítězslav Hájek led the magazine Květy and was an active poet and writer of feuilletons, whose work ranged from love ballads to short stories. His work remained intensely popular for the next several decades. This era was also saw the birth of the women’s movement led by the author Karolina Světlá, who first recognized and projected the problems of modern life onto the Czech village, imbuing the former stories of idyllic life with dramatic intensity. The most famous author of this generation, however, is Jan Neruda, whose work included feuilletons and bitterly ironic and skeptical poetry, but who is most famous for short stories set in modern day Prague, illuminating the life of ordinary people and the criminal classes. Feuilleton (a diminutive of French feuillet, the leaf of a book) was originally a kind of supplement attached to the political portion of French newspapers. ... Jan Nepomuk Neruda (July 9, 1834 - August 22, 1891) was a Czech writer and poet, one of the most prominent representatives of Czech Realism and a member of the May school. Jan Neruda was born in Prague, Bohemia, son of a small grocer who lived in the Malá Strana (Lesser...

Neo-romantics

The May generation was followed by the neo-romantics, who again split into two schools of thought. One school focused on developing art and culture not to represent Czech culture to the world, but simply for its own sake; the other rejected any literature that was not mindful of local traditions and culture. These authors continued in the romantic tradition, but also incorporated more contemporary styles: realism, symbolism, decadence. Three periods are apparent: the first reacted to the disappointment in the lack of political and social progress during the 1870’s; the second was the great return to poetry, especially epic poetry; and the third focused on prose (short stories and novels.) Realism is commonly defined as a concern for fact or reality and rejection of the impractical and visionary. ... Decadence generally refers to the supposed decline of a society because of moral weakness. ...

Representatives of the first wave are the poet Václav Šolc and Jakub Arbes, who gained fame writing the romaneto, the precursor to the modern detective story. Josef Václav Sládek was perhaps the greatest poet of the second wave – he led the magazine Lumír (which collected the work of many of his contemporaries) and became known as the first truly national Czech poet. Svatopluk Čech lived in isolation for much of his life, but wrote immensely popular epic and political poetry and satirical prose. Jaroslav Vrchlický, the most publicly decorated poet of this generation and who served in myriad other official capacities besides his literary career, made his name composing poetry that both held up the ideal of a perfect togetherness of mankind, and that sharply criticized the lack of this brotherhood in contemporary society. Julius Zeyer was the last of the great poets of the second wave of the neo-romantics – he wrote mainly poetic prose and epic poetry. Jakub Arbes (June 12, 1840, Prague – April 8, 1914, Prague) was a Czech writer and journalist, sympathizer of the májovci generation, creator of the new genre called romanetto. ... Svatopluk ÄŒech (February 21, 1846, OstÅ™edek near BeneÅ¡ov – February 23, 1908, Prague) was Czech writer, journalist and poet. ... Jaroslav Vrchlický (1853-1912) the greatest Czech lyrical poet. ... Julius Zeyer (1841 - 1901, both in Prague) was Czech writer and poet. ...

The third wave of the neo-romantics, whose authors wrote mainly prose, leaned heavily toward historical subjects: the two main proponents were Alois Jirásek, who wrote expansive novels based upon Czech history, and Zikmund Winter, whose first love was history and thus his work borders on non-fiction in its historical accuracy. Alois Jirásek (born August 23, 1851 in Hronov - died March 12, 1930 in Prague) was a Czech writer, focused mainly on historical subjects. ... Zikmund Winter (1846-1912) was a Czech writer and historian. ...

Realistic-naturalistic literature

In conversation with the neo-romantics, the next generation of authors leaned toward realism and naturalism, often coupled with the political realism advocated by T. G. Masaryk. These authors tended toward prose and renewed interest in the ordinary and banal, in contrast to the more flighty neo-romantics. In their efforts to portray the world accurately, they favored contemporary subjects over historical ones (since to them the past cannot be known accurately enough), and sought to deemphasize the personal voice of the author in comparison to the often highly colored speech of the characters. Two main topics of prose were of interest: one was the exploration of the Czech village, and the extent to which it remained an oasis of better morals or was corrupted by the cities – Jan Herben, Karel Václav Rais, and Alois Mrštík were the principal authors. The other was Prague – these authors, chiefly Ignát Herrmann and Karel Matěj Čapek-Chod, continued the tradition of Neruda and presented life in the capital both from the perspective of the upper classes and the lowest of the low. Realism is commonly defined as a concern for fact or reality and rejection of the impractical and visionary. ... For other meanings see Naturalism. ... Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (sometimes called Thomas Masaryk in English) (March 7, 1850 - September 14, 1937) advocated Czechoslovak independence and became the first President of Czechoslovakia. ... Karel MatÄ›j ÄŒapek-Chod (February 21, 1860, Domažlice – November 3, 1927, Prague) was a Czech naturalistic writer and a journalist. ...

Modernism

The last literary generation of the 19th century signaled a decided break with the past and the advent of modernism – after the wave of optimism in the wake of the French Revolution at the beginning of the century, the lack of progress in implementing these ideals of freedom and brotherhood led to both a skepticism toward the possibility of ever achieving these ideals, and renewed efforts to do so. The common link between authors of this generation is their adherence to a particular style over their own voices, and their often very critical perspectives on the work of the previous generations. The modernists also inaugurated the cult of the artist, the idea that an artist is an outsider in society, beholden only to himself and his work. This period also saw the birth of the literary critic as an independent profession, as an ally of the artist, helping to both define and present work to the public. The greatest of these was František Xaver Šalda, who rejected the prevailing styles - realism, symbolism, impressionism, and decadence - as individually too narrow, and instead advocated their synthesis in literature. He was also one of the signatories of the manifest of the Czech Modernists, who sharply distanced themselves from the older generations and sought to declare their revolutionary ambitions. The French Revolution (1789-1799) was a period in the history of France. ... Realism is commonly defined as a concern for fact or reality and rejection of the impractical and visionary. ... Impressionism was a 19th century art movement that began as a loose association of Paris-based artists who began publicly exhibiting their art in the 1860s. ... Decadence generally refers to the supposed decline of a society because of moral weakness. ...

The harshest of these critics of the old generation was the poet Josef Svatopluk Machar, who spoke to primarily the youth of his time through his satirical, ironic poetry and feuilletons. This generation produced two more poets of stature, Antonín Sova, whose prolific output mirrors the differing styles in vogue during the turn of the century, and Otokar Březina, a great symbolist poet in his youth and essayist in his later years. Otokar BÅ™ezina, neé Václav Ignác Jebavý, was the poet and essayist, the greatest of Czech (and some might say European) symbolists; He was born in 1868 in a small town Počátky: the mysterious landscape of Bohemian-Moravian Highlands (ÄŒeskomoravská vrchovina) influenced him a lot, because he...

Modernist prose laid great emphasis on ornamented, stylized prose – of the many active prose authors, Vilém Mrštík bridged the various styles from realism to impressionism, from the Secession to the beginnings of expressionism, and also strove to incorporate foreign authors and their works into Czech literature. Růžena Svobodová's work is the typical example of ornamented prose of the turn of the century, whereas Josef Karel Šlejhar continued the tradition of using motifs from rural Czech life. The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... The Scream by Edvard Munch (1893) which inspired 20th century Expressionists Portrait of Eduard Kosmack by Egon Schiele Rehe im Walde by Franz Marc On White II by Wassily Kandinsky, 1923. ...

20th century

Between 1918 and 1938, Czechoslovakia was a modern, democratic state (in 1938 – 1939, it was destroyed by Hitler´s Nazi Germany, after France and Britain refused to fulfil their treaty obligations to protect Czechoslovakia´s independence at Munich in September 1938). Internationally, especially in the English speaking world, the most well known writer of the inter-war period was Karel Čapek, the creator of the word "robot" (see his expressionist play Rossum´s Universal Robots from the 1920s, it was staged, among other places, also on Broadway.) Karel ÄŒapek (pronounced â–¶ (help· info); IPA: ) (January 9, 1890 - December 25, 1938) was one of the most important Czech writers of the 20th century. ...

In the interwar period Czechoslovakia saw the flowering of its poetic talent. A number of major poets emerged (František Halas, Vítězslav Nezval, Jaroslav Seifert (was was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in the 1980s) Vladimír Holan, Josef Hora); most of their work is, regrettably, locked within the incomprehensible Czech language. The Czechs created their own, independent poetic style, "poetism", the art of "modern civilisation, exoticism, playfulness". (Karel Teige was the theoretician of the Czech interwar avantgarde, (for further info, see the book by Alfred French, The Poets of Prague). Poetism, quite naturally, later developed into surrealism. Czechoslovakia had a strong surrealist tradition both in poetry and in the visual arts in the interwar period. Jaroslav Seifert listen ( ♫) (September 23, 1901 – January 10, 1986) was a Czech writer, poet and journalist. ... Vladimír Holan (1905 - 1980) was a Czech poet who became famous especially for his language obscurity, dark topics and pessimist views in his poems. ... Karel Teige (1900-1951) was architectural critic and pioneer of the International Modern Movement in Czechoslovakia. ...

Czech literature and culture played a major role on at least two occasions when Czech society lived under oppression and no political activity was possible. On both of these occasions, in the early 19th century and then again in the 1960s, the Czechs used their cultural and literary effort to create political freedom and to establish a confident, politically aware nation.

This cultural "drive for freedom" in the 1960s was put a stop to by the Warsaw Pact invasion of August 1968, after which strict neostalinist rule was imposed upon Czechoslovakia. Some 400 hundred Czech writers were banned. Some of them went into exile, where they created a vibrant, independent literature and publishing culture in the diaspora. The contact of these authors with different cultures and their testimony about how they attempted to come to terms with integration to foreign societies, provides rather interesting early evidence about globalisation.

Small emigré publishing houses were created by Czech independent authors in the West, in particular from the early 1970s. Perhaps the most well known was Josef Škvorecký´s 68 Publishers in Toronto, Canada, another one was Index in Munich, Germany. Books, published in Czech in there publishing houses often later appeared in translation into West European languages.

By far the best-known Czech emigré author is Milan Kundera who has lived in France since 1975, and has written in French since 1989. Josef Škvorecký became quite well known on the American continent in the 1980s, having been awarded the Neustadt Prize for Literature in 1980. Arnošt Lustig has had a following in the US as an important author of holocaust literature. Milan Kundera (born April 1, 1929 in Brno, Czechoslovakia) and died February 8, 2006 in Lyons, France is a Franco-Czech writer. ... Josef Å kvorecký listen â–¶(?) (born September 27, 1924 in Náchod, Czechoslovakia) is a famous contemporary Czech writer and publisher. ... ArnoÅ¡t Lustig (born 21 December 1921 in Prague) is a renowned Czech Jewish author of novels, short stories, plays and screenplays whose works have often involved the Holocaust. ...

Of those authors who remained in Czechoslovakia, poet Miroslav Holub became extremely well-known internationally, especially in the English speaking world. Absurdist plays by Václav Havel, dissident writer in the 1970s and 1980s, and Czechoslovak/Czech President in the 1990, are also important. Bohumil Hrabal was perhaps the most innovative Czech 20th century writer, both in style and in subject matter. Miroslav Holub (13 September 1923 Plzeň - 14 July 1998) was a Czech poet and immunologist. ... Václav Havel with the Order of Canada Václav Havel, GCB, CC (IPA: ) (born October 5, 1936) is a Czech writer and dramatist. ... Bohumil Hrabal (March 28, 1914, Brno - February 3, 1997, Prague) was a famous Czech writer. ...

Since the fall of communism, the importance of Czech literature has receded somewhat. Immediately after the fall of communism, the Czech public was very much interested in the "forbidden fruit" of "dissident" and "emigré" literature, but the interest quickly subsided, when the book market was flooded by previously banned literature, which now, after the fall of communism, seem to relate to a "bygone" era.

In the 1990s, Czech literature has been a minority subject, cultivated and followed mostly by a handful of enthusiasts. Perhaps the only contemporary Czech author, who can make a living by writing fiction, is Michael Viewegh, a prolific author of commercial entertainment, "Bridget Jonesian" books about erotic relationships between the sexes. Viewegh is an extremely good craftsman and has an ironic sense of humour. Some of his works are better than "Bridget Jones" and, as the author ages and is beginning to realise that there must be perhaps more to life than sex between yuppies, his later works are more profound than his earlier output.

On the whole, though, contemporary Czech literature (since 1989) is relatively marginalised. Its place has been taken over by contemporary Czech cinema, which has been particularly vibrant over the past 10 years or so, bringing distant reminiscences of the famous "Czech New Wave" in the cinema of the 1960s.

Important Czech authors not mentioned above

Ordered roughly chronologically, by era the centre of given author's work falls into.

The oldest period

• Christianus monachus
• Johannes von Saaz
• Smil Flaška z Pardubic
• Hynek z Poděbrad
• Mikuláš Dačický z Heslova

Johannes von Saaz (c. ...

Between 1750 and 1860 (Modern Bohemian Literature)

• Jan Jeník z Bratřic
• F. J. Rubeš

Between 1860 and 1910 (Modern Bohemian Literature II)

• Karel Hlaváček
• Viktor Dyk
• František Gellner
• Fráňa Šrámek
• Karel Toman

Viktor Dyk (December 31, 1877, Pšovka u Mělníka – May 14, 1931, near the island of Lopud, Yugoslavia) was a well-know Czech poet, prose writer, playwright, politician, and lawyer. ...

Between WWI and WWII

• Franz Kafka
• Vladislav Vančura
• Bohuslav Reynek
• Jakub Deml
• Ladislav Klíma
• František Halas
• Jiří Wolker
• Richard Weiner
• Franz Werfel
• Karel Čapek
• Josef Čapek
• Jiří Mahen
• Jan Zahradníček
• Egon Hostovský
• Ferdinand Peroutka
• Jaroslav Seifert
• Josef Váchal
• Hermann Ungar
• Jaroslav Hašek
• Jan Čep
• Jaroslav Havlíček
• Egon Erwin Kisch

Kafka redirects here. ... Vladislav Vančura in Giant Mountains, Bohemia, 1930s Vladislav Vančura (23 June 1891, Háj near Opava – 1 June 1942, Prague) was one of the most important Bohemian (Czech) writers of the 20th century. ... Bohuslav Reynek was one of the most important Bohemian (Czech) poets, writers and translators of the 20th century. ... Jakub Deml Jakub Deml was born 1878 in Tasov near Trebic, Czechoslovakia, and died in 1961 in Trebic. ... Ladislav Klíma (August 8, 1878 – April 19, 1928), was a Czech philosopher and Novelist influenced by George Berkeley, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. ... Jiří Wolker (March 29, 1900 – January 3, 1924) was a Czech poet, journalist and playwright. ... Franz Werfel, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1940 Werfels grave in the Zentralfriedhof, Vienna. ... Karel ÄŒapek (pronounced â–¶ (help· info); IPA: ) (January 9, 1890 - December 25, 1938) was one of the most important Czech writers of the 20th century. ... Josef ÄŒapek (1887 – 1945), Czech artist. ... Jiri Mahen Jiří Mahen (December 12, 1882 – May 22, 1939) was a Czech novelist, playwrite and essayist. ... Jan Zahradníček (January 17, 1905, Mastník, near TÅ™ebíč, Bohemia - October 10, 1960, Uhřínov, near Žďár nad Sázavou, Czechoslovakia) was a Czech poet of the early and mid-20th century. ... Ferdinand Peroutka Ferdinand Peroutka (1895–1978) was a Czech journalist and writer. ... Jaroslav Seifert listen ( ♫) (September 23, 1901 – January 10, 1986) was a Czech writer, poet and journalist. ... Josef Váchal (September 29, 1884 in Milavče near Domažlice – May 10, 1969 in Studeňany) was a Czech writer, painter, graphic designer and book-printer. ... Categories: 1893 births | 1929 deaths | Czech writers | People stubs ... Jaroslav HaÅ¡ek (April 30, 1883 – January 3, 1923) was a Czech humorist and satirist who became well-known mainly for his world-famous novel The Good Soldier Å vejk, an unfinished collection of farcical incidents about a soldier in World War I which has been translated into sixty languages. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Jaroslav Havlíček (February 3, 1896, Jilemnice - April 7, 1943, Prague) was a Czech novelist. ... Egon Erwin Kisch ( Prague, April 29, 1885 - March 31, 1948) was a Czechoslovakian writer and journalist, who wrote in German. ...

Communist Era

• Bohumil Hrabal
• Josef Jedlička

• Josef Škvorecký
• Ludvík Vaculík
• Jirí Gruša
• Miloš Václav Kratochvíl
• Ota Pavel
• Miroslav Holub
• Jan Křesadlo

• Jan Skácel
• Vladimír Holan
• Vladimír Páral
• Vratislav Effenberger
• Zbyněk Havlíček
• Karel Hynek
• Karel Šebek
• Egon Bondy
• Ivan Martin Jirous

Bohumil Hrabal (March 28, 1914, Brno - February 3, 1997, Prague) was a famous Czech writer. ... Josef Jedlička (1927 - 1990) was a Czech writer. ... Josef Å kvorecký listen â–¶(?) (born September 27, 1924 in Náchod, Czechoslovakia) is a famous contemporary Czech writer and publisher. ... Miroslav Holub (13 September 1923 Plzeň - 14 July 1998) was a Czech poet and immunologist. ... Jan KÅ™esadlo Jan KÅ™esadlo was the primary pseudonym used by Václav Jaroslav Karel Pinkava (December 9, 1926 in Prague - August 13, 1995 in Colchester), a Czech psychologist who was also a prizewinning novelist and poet. ... Jan Skácel (February 7, 1922 - November 7, 1989) was one of the best known Czech poets of the 20th century. ... Vladimír Holan (1905 - 1980) was a Czech poet who became famous especially for his language obscurity, dark topics and pessimist views in his poems. ... Vladimír Páral (born September 10, 1932) is Czech prozaic, one of most sucessfull Czech contemporary writers. ... Egon Bondy (born January 20, 1930 in Prague) is a Czech philosopher, writer and poet, and the main personality of the Prague Underground. ... Ivan Martin Jirous is best known for being the artistic director of the Czech psychedelic rock group The Plastic People of the Universe. ...

Contemporary

• Michal Viewegh
• Emil Hakl
• Jan Balabán
• Michal Ajvaz
• Daniela Hodrová
• Sylvie Richterová
• Jáchym Topol
• Filip Topol
• Jaroslav Rudiš
• Jaroslav Velinský

Michal Viewegh (born March 31, 1962) is one of the most popular contemporary Czech writers and certainly the bestselling one: His books, which he has been publishing regularly every spring for several years now, sell over 50 000 copies, bringing him an upper-high-class income uparallelled among Czech writers. ... Jáchym Topol (1962) is a Czech writer, a member of the Czech underground literature movement, and since the middle 1980s one of the co-founders of an underground Czech literary periodic Revolver Revue. ... Jaroslav Rudiš (born June 8, 1972) is a Czech writer, journalist and musician. ... Jaroslav Velinský - Czech writer, born 1932 in Prague - miner, metal-smith, grafic artist, SF and detective writer, publisher, musician (banjo and swing guitar). ...

See also

• Otto's encyclopedia

Ottos encyclopedia (Czech: Ottova encyklopedie or Ottův slovník naučný), published at the turn of the 20th century, is the largest encyclopedia written in the Czech language. ...

External links

• Czech and Slovak Literature Resources at Oxford – many of the links are to Czech pages, most descriptions in English. Contains also a historic overview
• Czech Literature since the 1980s – lecture
• Brief history with a few capsule portraits
• Overview from Encyclopedia Britannica
• Potápěč – Czech and Slovak Literature Resources – Czech Literature Resources. In Czech.
• Lecture about changes after the fall of communism
• Article about current state of Czech culture and Western mis-perceptions of it, with readers' polemic
• Columbia Encyclopedia - very brief history
• Catholic Encyclopedia - brief early history till 1800

This article incorporates text from the public domain Catholic Encyclopedia. The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... The Catholic Encyclopedia (also referred to as the Old Catholic Encyclopedia today) is an English-language encyclopedia published in 1913 by the The Encyclopedia Press, designed to give authoritative information on the entire cycle of Catholic interests, action and doctrine. // History The writing of the encyclopedia began on January 11...