A History with a Difference












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            On March 3, 2011, the Institute of Czech Literature and Literary Studies organized an even

            the book “Dějiny nové moderny. Česká literatura v letech 1905–1923” (The History of New Mo
            Literature 1905–1923). Co-organized by the Students’ Council of the Charles University Fac
            the event took place in a lecture hall on the faculty’s premises on náměstí Jana Palacha. 

            included a discussion with students and other guests on how to write literary history.
            The publication, shortlisted for this year’s Magnesia Litera Awards, aims to present liter
            non-conventional way. At the heart of the authors’ approach is an effort to tell the stori

            texts in the individual years in a way that emphasises their mutual connections and confli
            also followed the changes of the period’s literary speech and imagination, the infiltratio

            of Modernism into traditional discourse, their contrapuntalism and various manners of coex
            The period studied begins in 1905 when F.X. Šalda published his collection of essays “Boje
            Prague hosted an exhibition of Edvard Munch’s works (its poster is featured on the book’s 

            in 1923, the year that Jaroslav Hašek died and a new Poetist avant-garde was gradually bei
            “This publication was written over the course of the past five years as a result of a rese
            project involving two research centres – The Institute of Bohemian Studies of the Faculty 
            Philosophy of the University of South Bohemia led by Professor Papoušek and the Institute 
                                                                                                      
            Literature and Literary Studies. The book was published last year by Academia,” those were
            opening words of the head of the Institute of Czech Literature and Literary Studies and th
            co-author PhDr. Jan Wiendl, Ph.D. Dr. Wiendl also said: “The book consists of three layers
                                                                                                      
                                                                                                      
                                                                                                      

            The central part is introduced by a chapter by P.A. Bílek and V. Papoušek discussing the i
            literary history. Another two chapters, titled ‘The Paradigm of New Modernism – Changes in
            Discourse in 1905–1923’ and ‘The First Two Decades or the Physiognomy of Modernism between

            Innovation, the Unconscious and “Strict Science”, Enthusiasm and the Art of Extreme’, disc
            Modernism and avant-garde not only in a Czech context but also in broader European literar
            social circumstances. The following chapters are devoted to the individual years 1905–1923

            virtual playgrounds giving each of the authors a chance to identify the main points and in
            based on them.”
            The book is the first in a series within a project aiming to capture the whole of the 20th

            history. The next volume is going to concentrate on the 1924–1934 period in Czech literary

            On April 10 we will find out whether the book has succeeded in the Magnesia Litera Awards.

            been awarded the Jury Prize for an Encyclopaedic Work by the Union of Interpreters and Tra
            “Dictionary of the Year” event.
            (Lucie Kettnerová)

            Guests participating in the discussion on how to write literary history were most interest
            authors and works featured in the book had been selected, why German-speaking writers were
            more and how the rich pictorial material had been assembled.

            Translation: Pavla Horáková