The Impulse: reforms of the enlightened ruler Joseph II (1780-1790)
1781:
decree of religious toleration
(partial) abolishment of forced labour in the land
educational reforms, economic reforms, change in the role of the church, Germanisation, centralization
Typical features of the Czech national Revival:
language is all important
educated people in the forefront
the Revival looks for inspiration among ordinary Czechs, in the countryside
connection with pre-1620 times
For historical background on the period of enlightenment in Austria, look here.
led the first generation of revivalists. He was a critical, enlightened scholar. The principle "ad fontes". He did not believe in the resurrection of the Czech language for sophisticated and scholarly aims. Dobrovský cultivated Czech as an educational, popularizing tool for the ordinary people.
Ausfuerliches Lehrgebaude der Boehmischen Sprache (1809)
German-Czech Dictionary (1802-1821)
Institutiones linguage Slavicae dialecti veteris (1822)
Geschichte der boehmischen Sprache und Literatur (1792)
Other literary historical studies: Karel Rafael Ungar published Balbín's Bohemia docta, Mikuláš Adaukt Voigt wrote Effigies virorum eruditorum. Historical studies: Gelasius Dobner published a critical edition of Hájek's Czech Chronicle
Czech newspapers: Václav Matěj Kramerius (1753-1808) Czech expedition (1790). Published Prague Post Newspaper (from 1789). Brought out new editions of old Czech literature and entertainment reading. Good standard, a large response
Czech Theatre: Bouda (1786) at today's Wenceslas Square, organizer: Václav Thám, also author of plays and translations
Beginnings of modern Czech poetry:
Václav Thám, 1875: Poems in verse
Dobrovský: treatise: Boehmische Prosodie (1795): rules of syllabotonic poetry
Antonín Jaroslav Puchmajer: Collection of poems and songs (1795, 1797)
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Reactionary ruler Francis II (1792-1835), especially after Napoleon's defeat Austria became a police state. End of the enlightenment
Pre-romanticism, sentimentalism. Emphasis on emotions, national idiosyncracies, folksong beauty, distant past, Slavonic brotherhood
The creation of a poetic and scholarly language (Jungmann), discovery of Hussite traditions (Palacký), the idea of Slavonic brotherhood (Kollár, Šafařík, Čelakovský)
2. This, second generation led by
Enthusiasm and emotions are more important than mere facts.
A dialogue about the Czech Languages (1806) - language is the sign of Czech nationality
translations: Milton, Paradise Lost (1811), Chateaubriand, Atala (1805)
Literature (1820)
A History of Czech Literature (1825)
A Czech German dictionary, five volumes, (1834-1839)
others: Antonín Marek, Milota Zdirad Polák, Jan Evangelista Purkyně
Slavonic Antiquities (1836-1837)
The Manuscript of Králův Dvůr (1817)
The Manuscript of Zelená Hora (1818)
In Response to Russian Songs (1829)
In Response to Czech Songs (1839)
THE CZECH NATIONAL REVIVAL - The 1830s and 1840s
In the 1830s and 1840s, the National Revival ceased being a matter of a small group of activists and became a matter for the whole nation. Less interest in Slavonic folklore, more interest in Czech folklore. The idea of Slavonic brotherhood is now felt as much less real. The influence of the Polish November Uprising (1830) and the 1830 French Revolution.
1827: Jungmann's article On Classicism in Literature in General and in Czech Literature in Particular: "enough linguistic experimentation"
Overall philistine atmosphere of the times
Literature:
A - educational aims
B - high art
There was a conflict.
In the 1830s, there were two literary generations:
(a) the older sentimentalists around Jungmann
(b) - the youth of the 1830s: Tyl, Mácha, Sabina, Erben (born around 1810)
- later: Němcová, Havlíček (born around 1820)
Mácha - founder of Romanticism in Bohemia
Tyl - educational theatre
Born in Prague in a poor family. Studied philosophy and law, became briefly a lawyer's assistance in Litoměřice
Preparatory poetry: (Versuches des Ignaz Mácha, 1829)
historical prose: Křivoklad (1834)
subjective, personal views. A Pilgrimage to Krkonoše (written in 1833-1834, philosophical contemplations, provoked by the coming to life and by the dying of monks in a mountain monastery)
Two conteporary short stories:
Evening at Bezděz (printed in 1834)
Márinka (printed in 1834, mature)
MÁJ (printed in April 1836) - MAJOR WORK OF 19th CENTURY CZECH LITERATURE AND EUROPEAN ROMANTICISM. Long lyrico-epical poem. Fragmentary narrative (Highwayman Vilém murdered the seducer of his girlfriend Jarmila, not knowing that the seducer was his father, and is executed) serves as a metaphor for expressing Mácha's dissatisfaction with life.
Other romanticists and radicals: Karel Sabina (1813-1877), Josef Václav Frič (1829-1890)
worked for the National Revival by "everyday, petty, educational efforts".
Edited Czech periodicals, wrote sentimental short stories in Czech, wrote and performed popular dramas (The Fiddle Play, 1834, contains the song Kde domov můj by František Škroup, Czech National Anthem)
KAREL HAVLÍČEK BOROVSKÝ, BOŽENA NĚMCOVÁ
Revolution in 1848. No time for literature. Most writers participated as journalists. Journalistic work very useful later because it taught writers how to write about real life.
After the defeat of the revolution, authoritarian oppression again: 1849 - 1860. A police state, worse than before 1848. Alexander Bach's absolutism.
Three important figures of Czech literature after 1849:
Karel Havlíčk (Borovský) (1821-1856): journalist and satirist, deported abroad
Božena Němcová (1820-1862): prose writer, persecuted, lived in poverty
Karel Jaromír Erben (1811-1870) author of poetic collection Kytice (A Bouquet of National Ballads), retired from public life
Educated under the influence of a priest. Studied Arts Faculty in Prague, wanted to become a priest, in order to best help the national cause. Expelled from the seminary in 1841. Disillusionment. Enthusiasm for Slavonic nations, educated a nobleman's son in Russia, dissilusionment, left Russian in 1844.
Pictures of Russia (1843-46 in periodicals)
Epigrams (1845): To the Church, to the King, to the Fatherland, to the Muses, to the World. "...little vessels in which I put my anger so that it would not eat away at my heart"
1846-1848 edited the government Prague newspaper
From March 1848 edited his own National Newspaper (banned early in 1850)
From 1850 he published the journal Slovan in Kutná Hora. Arrested on 16th December 1851) deliberately before Christmas), deported to Brixen in Tyrol. Released in 1855, died in 1856
Satirical poems:
King Lávra (written 1854, published 1870)
Tyrol Elegies (written 1852, published 1861)
Baptism of St. Vladimír (written 1848-54, published in 1861 and 1867 - parts
born in Vienna as a daughter of a nobleman's coachman. She spent her childooh in the Ratibořice Valley, which she later turned into a sunny idyll. At the age of 17 she was forced to marry a 34-year old officer of the financial police. Němec was a patriot, had problems at work, was often moved from post to post.
During her years in Prague in 1842-45 Němcová met the Prague patriotic community. Read George Sand. Met radicals Sabina and Frič.
Financial difficulties and persecution in the 1850s. Němcová's oldest son Hynek died.
Němcová died in January 1862 of exhaustion.
Her work:
National fairy tales and myths (1845-47) - her own re-telling of folk lore
Pictures from the Domažlice environs - letters published in periodicals 1845-1848
Pictures from Slavonic Life (The Journal of the Czech Museum, 1859)
Slovak Fairy Tales and Myths (1857-58 - collector's interest)
Her attempts at creating modern Czech fiction:
(a) Images, pictures from national life
(b) attempts at socially-aware novellas and novels
Ad a:
first stage: documentation of the qualities of countryside people and its customs
second stage: attempts to create typical characters
a number of prosaic texts include GRANNY (1855)
Ad b:
attempts at socially aware novel:
1. description of typical, positive characters (hope for better life)
2. Romantic, almost Máchaesque prose with tragic conflicts
3. texts dominated by a concrete storyline. Here, tragic conflicts are non-existrent, through the influence of positive characters the story culminates in a happy end, negative characters "see the light" and repent
KAREL JAROMÍR ERBEN (1811-1870)
Studied philosophy and law at Prague Faculty. Worked as a clerk at court, later as an archivist for the Royal Czech Science Society and secretary to the Czech museum. From 1851 he worked as an archivist of the City of Prague.
He knew Mácha, Palacký. In 1848-49 he worked as a journalist on the Prague Newpaper. In 1848 he was a member of the National Council, supported the liberal, "austroslavic" political line.
Collector of folklore. Tried to reconstruct the original folk myth.
The Folk Song of Bohemia (3 volumes) 1842-45
a new, extended edition in 1864
A hundred Slavonic folk tales and myth in the original dialects (1865)
A Czech version of the above: 1869
Czech fairy tales published posthumously (1905)
Erben's poetry:
A bouquet of national tales (1853)
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Revival of literary activity after 1860, the publication of the "October diploma" by Austrian government and after the re-introduction of constitutional rule.
1858 - the publication of the May Almanac (Neruda, Hálek, Světlá, also older writers: Němcová, Sabina, Erben)
(1868 - the publication of the "Ruch" ("Activity") Almanac. Not a poetic generation. Sládek, Čech)