CJp054 Guide to the Czech Literature

Faculty of Education
Spring 2025
Extent and Intensity
0/2/0. 4 credit(s). Type of Completion: k (colloquium).
In-person direct teaching
Teacher(s)
Mgr. Miroslav Chocholatý, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
doc. PhDr. Jiří Poláček, CSc.
Department of Czech Language and Literature – Faculty of Education
Contact Person: Petra Rozbořilová
Supplier department: Department of Czech Language and Literature – Faculty of Education
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
The course broadens and also systematizes current knowledge of significant events in Czech literary life in the 19th and 20th century through carefully selected topics. The course provides the students with the opportunity to broaden and systematize their knowledge of the history of Czech literature. The aim is to make the whole spectrum of secondary literature available to the students, especially in the area of newly acquired knowledge pertaining to the topic. The course broadens and also systematizes current knowledge of significant events in Czech literary life in the 19th and 20th century through carefully selected topics. The course provides the students with the opportunity to broaden and systematize their knowledge of the history of Czech literature. The aim is to make the whole spectrum of secondary literature available to the students, especially in the area of newly acquired knowledge pertaining to the topic.
Learning outcomes
Students will be able to clarify the development of literary movements in the particular period of Czech Literature. They will be able to identify and analyze the style of outstanding literary personalities of the period in question. They will be able to interpret literary works, defend and support their views with their knowledge of literary studies. The students will broaden their knowledge of literary movements in the course of development of Czech literature as well as the basic feature of their poetics.
Syllabus
  • Selected chapters of the history of Czech literature of the 19th and 20th century. 1. The issues of Czech romanticism (Mácha’s Máj). 2. The beginnings of realism in Czech prose (in regards to Božena Němcová’s production). 3. The generation of May School (in regards to Jan Neruda’s poetry). 4. The issues of Czech symbolism (in regards to Otokar Březina’s and Antonín Sova’s production). 5. Expressionism in Czech prose of the 20th century. (Richard Weiner, Jakub Deml, Ladislav Klíma) 6. Poetism (in regards to Vítězslav Nezval’s production). 7. Psychological prose of the 1930’s and 1940’s (in regards to Jaroslav Havlíček’s, Egon Hostovský’s and Jarmila Glazarová’s production). 8. Prose of epistemological skepticism (in regards to Karel Čapek’s production). 9. Group 42. 10. Jewish themes in postwar literature (holocaust themes): Arnošt Lustig, Ladislav Fuks) 11. Vladimír Holan – type of meditative poetry. 12. Bohumil Hrabal and Vladimír Páral – two contradictory types of Czech prose of the 1960’s.
Literature
  • HRABÁK, Josef, Dušan JEŘÁBEK and Zdeňka TICHÁ. Průvodce po dějinách české literatury. 3. vydání. Praha: Panorama, 1984, 521 stran. URL info
Teaching methods
In the form of lectures, students will get a broader knowledge of literary trends and movements in the given period, as well as of their poetics. They will further develop their literary knowledge and interpretational skills with the aim to communicate with a literary work more effectively. They will creatively use their knowledge gained not only in contact classes but also in their individual study of recommended literature which they will be able to discuss regularly with their teacher.
Assessment methods
Credit requirements: emphasis is put on students´active participation in classes, and their ability to evaluate a literary work, compare it in the context od current national and world literary production and defend their views using precise terminology.
Language of instruction
Czech
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
The course is taught annually.
The course is taught: every week.
General note: Předmět bude realizován při minimálním počtu 10 zapsaných studentů.
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2021, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2024.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2025, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/ped/spring2025/CJp054