A few words about Czech literature… A meeting with prof. Wojciech Soliński
A few words about Czech literature…
May 9th, 2024 – A lecture by prof. Wojciech Soliński as part of the BEYOND LANGUAGE series.
The course is conducted in collaboration with the Institute of English Studies at the University of Wrocław, the College for the Interdisciplinary Studies, and the Committee for Philology of the Polish Academy of Sciences (Wrocław Branch). The course concludes with the opportunity for participants to present their research ideas to a wider audience at the recurring international scientific conference organized by the College of the Interdisciplinary Studies, titled BEYOND LANGUAGE.
During the lecture on Thursday, May 9th, 2024, as part of the recurring BEYOND LANGUAGE series, students of the College for the Interdisciplinary Studies at the UWr embarked on a literary journey to the Czech lands. Their guide was a Polish philologist and professor at the Institute of Polish Philology at the University of Wrocław – Wojciech Soliński.
Prof. Soliński began a brief overview of contemporary Czech literature with the book by Jaroslav Hašek (1921–1923) The Good Soldier Švejk [Original: Osudy dobrého vojáka Švejka za světové války , or The Adventures of the Good Soldier Švejk During the World War], whose protagonist is Josef Švejk from Prague’s Královské Vinohrady district, a dog seller and bootblack for Lieutenant Lukáš. The novel, published after World War I, has an anti-war message, mocking war glory and heroic models, and highlighting the absurdity of war, which ordinary people fall victim to. The publication of the novel marked the beginning of viewing Czechs as a non-fighting nation, a theme also addressed by Josef Škvorecký ([1948–1949] 1958) in his novel The Cowards [Czech: Zbabělci]. Josef Škvorecký (1924–2012) was a Czech writer, esteemed translator of American literature, and recipient of Wrocław’s Angelus Central European Literature Award (2009) for his novel The Engineer of Human Souls ([1977] 2007) [Czech: Příběh inženýra lidských duší]. Persecuted in his homeland by security agents, he permanently settled in Canada later in life.
Continuing the exploration of Czech literature, prof. Soliński introduced Karel Čapek (1890–1938), born in Malé Svatoňovice, a Czech writer, novelist, and pioneer of science fiction, described as a “prophet ahead of his time,” and author of the book The Absolute at Large ([1922] 1947) [Czech: Továrna na absolutno]. This book discusses the dangers of civilization driven by inventions and unrelenting progress, a theme also explored in his fantastic drama R.U.R. The title stands for “Rossum’s Universal Robots,” and it is in this play that the word “ROBOT” first appeared, a term created by Čapek and popularized through this work.
Czech culture and language are sources of numerous interesting and unexpected origins. For example, the title of the poem Máj (1836) by Karel Hynek Mácha is a remnant of German month names. Karel Hynek Mácha (1810–1836), a 19th-century Czech writer and poet, wrote his first poems in German. Although, Czech was spoken in his family home. Mácha was a bilingual writer. Today, the fifth month of the year is called “květen” in Czech, which might cause linguistic confusion for readers of this romantic poem. The history of linguistic borrowings reflects the history of the entire country, and linguistic diversity is a common good.
Milan Kundera (1929–2023), initially a Czech-language writer, began writing in French after emigrating to France in 1975, refusing translations of his works into Czech. He explains this decision in The Betrayed Testaments ([1993] 1996) [French: Les testaments trahis].
The “dark horse” of the lecture turned out to be Bohumil Hrabal (1914–1997). According to the mythology he created about himself, he became a writer precisely when he hit his head while working on laying tracks. Hrabal is perhaps best known for his story Closely Watched Trains [Czech: Ostře Sledované Vlaky], published in 1965. A black-and-white Czechoslovak film of the same title, directed by Jiří Menzel, was made in 1966 based on this story. The film won an Oscar in 1968 for Best International Feature Film. Another noteworthy novel by Bohumil Hrabal is the realistic Too Loud a Solitude [Czech: Příliš hlučná samota] from 1977, whose protagonist works at destroying wastepaper. For someone who loves books, destroying them must be overwhelming. How does Hrabal’s protagonist cope? He reads. He saves the books he becomes particularly attached to from destruction and moves them to his small apartment.
In 2014, a commemorative stone dedicated to Bohumil Hrabal was placed in Mińsk Mazowiecki, indicating a place the prominent Czech writer likely never physically visited. This did not prevent Hrabal’s readers from commemorating his literary legacy. Perhaps, “the words from his books already pulse in veins up to the ends of capillaries,” and the stone stands as its hard evidence.
Author of the text: Marta Sicińska from the College for the Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Wrocław
Photographer: Piotr P. Chruszczewski
Text editing: Monika Piechota
For more information, interesting texts, and great photos, visit the UWr College for the Interdisciplinary Studies website.
Podczas czwartkowego wykładu przeprowadzonego 9 maja 2024 r. w ramach cyklicznych wędrówek BEYOND LANGUAGE, studenci Kolegium Międzydziedzinowych Studiów Indywidualnych UWr wybrali się w podróż literacką do krainy czeskiej. Przewodnikiem wycieczki był filolog polski, profesor Instytutu Filologii Polskiej Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego – Wojciech Soliński.
Translated by Oliwia Kowalińska (student of English Studies at the University of Wrocław) as part of the translation practice.
