Team projects:
Czech Electronic Library – 19th and early 20th Century poetry
The Department was established on 1st April 1998, when it was awarded a three-year grant by the Czech Ministry of Culture to create the Czech Electronic Library Full-text Database of 19th Century Czech Poetry from the Thám School to the Lumír School. As of 1st January 2001, the working group was then awarded another grant, again by the Czech Ministry of Culture, this time for four years, to extend and complete the assignment. As of 1.7.2004 it then received a grant from the Czech Ministry of Education for its project entitled Czech Electronic Library – Poets Debuting between 1900 and 1918.
The output of the first grant assignment (600 poetry collections) was published by the ASCR Institute for Czech Literature under the subtitle "from the Thám School to the Lumír School" in 2002 in CD-ROM format. The second output of the full-text database entitled Czech Electronic Library – 19th Century Poetry (1200 poetry collections), which linked up the supplemented and updated texts brought out on the CD-ROM with new work, was published online. The output of the third grant assignment was incorporated on an ongoing basis into the existing online full-text database with the definitive title: Czech Electronic Library - 19th and Early 20th Century Poetry. Almost twelve years of work on the assignment came to an end in December 2007. The database of Czech poetry contains 1,700 books of poetry published over 150 years and available free of charge to those interested at: www.ceska-poezie.cz.
Critical Hybrid Edition
Collective Critical Edition of the Work of František Gellner and Karel Hlaváček
The aim of this project (ASCR Grant Agency, 2007–2009) is to create a hybrid, i.e. digital and book, edition of the collective work of František Gellner and Karel Hlaváček. Work on this grant project will involve the development and testing of software for the material, comprising two sets of work dealt with in parallel, which will be utilized for future collective hybrid edition volumes. This combination of a traditional book medium and DVD will resolve a key editorial issue, i.e. the tension between a reader's edition and a scholarly edition. The book will present each author in a version that is critically edited for the reader's benefit, with an extensive selection from his entire work. In contrast, the data medium will present the entire text corpus of each author's work, from manuscript drafts to all the manuscript and typewritten versions, substantial transcripts not by the author, copies from journals, collections of papers and almanacs, all book editions during the author's life and texts from posthumously published editions, which from the textological standpoint involve considerable editorial work. Emphasis will be placed on providing and presenting the most extensive possible collection of manuscripts in facsimile form (in collaboration with the Museum of National Literature Literary Archive in Prague). In addition to original artistic work the DVD will also include accompanying material involving correspondence relating to the author's life and work. An integral part will also be the bibliographical lists and the selection from secondary specialist literature (focusing on reception at the time). At the same time the DVD will map out the extensive (particularly drawn and graphic) artistic work of both authors. The computer presentation will allow for a quite different approach, particularly with regard to the issue of text versions and their various readings. The electronic version will also facilitate broad usage of hypertext (and index) links and structured search types.
The collective hybrid edition will continue with a third and fourth volume, presenting critical editions of Silesian Songs by Petr Bezruč and Garland by Karel Jaromír Erben, which are now at the first stage of editorial work.
Individual projects:
Three Chapters from the History of Textology and Editorial Practice
(Mgr. Michal Kosák, Ph.D.)
The output of this three-year project (ASCR Grant Agency 2007–2009) is a study of editorial practice and the history of modern Czech textology. The development of editorial practice and the textology of modern Czech literature primarily involves three key discussions: a dispute around 1906 between e.g. Jaroslav Vlček, Jan Jakubec, Václav Flajšhans and František Bačkovský; a discussion which took place during and immediately after the Second World War, which originated in a poll entitled To Alter or Not to Alter from the Hovory o knihách (Conversations about Books 1939) journal, which resulted in draft Critical and Editorial Principles for the Publication of Modern Czech Authors dated 1947; and the third key conflict was the debate over the publication of Petr Bezruč's work, which went back to before the Second World War, but culminated in discussions primarily between Oldřich Králík, Felix Vodička, Miroslav Červenka and Břetislav Štork around 1966. In addition to these key factors, there were other discussions that were of undeniable importance with regard to the development of Czech textology and editorial practice (e.g. over the publication of work by Mácha, Klíma, Němcová and others). This book will also include an extensive supplement reprinting important material from the period.
Teréza Nováková in the Light of her Family Correspondence
(PhDr. Blanka Svadbová, CSc.)
The grant-assisted project (Czech Science Foundation, 2007–2009) Teréza Nováková in the Light of her Family Correspondence primarily includes letters exchanged with her son Arne Novák, her husband Josef Novák and her eldest son Theodor. They provide us with a number of new insights into her creative orientation, her intellectual background and discharges from her emotional life, adding depth to our overall picture of this writer, which has hitherto only been known in outline. Within the author's broad scope, the depiction of her private world and creative life turn into a penetrating portrayal of literary life and the cultural, social and political context of the era in which she lived. The correspondence also reclarifies the circumstances behind the life and many-sided work of Arne Novák and his development from the individualist standpoints of a late 19th century generation representative to a conception of Czech literature that showed high regard for traditional literary values. The output will be a book edition of a selection from the correspondence plus a DVD with complete processed material; this will include correspondence, with individual letters arranged chronologically in order of the flow of communication, as well as basic search tools.
Comics: History and Theory
(Mgr. Pavel Kořínek; Mgr. Martin Foret, Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci)
Despite over one hundred years of ongoing existence within the Czech cultural context, the comics form remains basically unresearched and undescribed. The grant-assisted project entitled Comics: History and Theory (supported by the Czech Science Foundation, 2010–2012) aims to prepare manuscripts for two monograph publications. The first one, A History of Czechoslovak Comics 1900–2000, is to offer a basic summary of the "history of comics" in the Czecho(-)Slovak environment. Naturally, the emphasis will be on original domestic output, but without neglecting the influence of comics texts in translation, which during some periods in particular (e.g. the 1930s and post-1989), have significantly affected the overall image of comics as an independent medium. Attention will also be paid to "thought on comics", reflections on theoretical and critical texts and debates. The second output of this three-year grant-assisted project will be a theoretical summarizing monograph dealing first with issues of definition, and after summarizing previous comics theories both at home and abroad the text then focuses on a formal description of the medium and the attributes that are peculiar to it, as well as the specific narrative, aesthetic (?), cultural and receptional characteristics of comics. The grant-assisted project will also include a comicsology colloquium and will involve staff both from the ASCR Institute for Czech Literature (Mgr. Pavel Kořínek and Mgr. Michal Jareš) and the Palacký University Philosophical Faculty in Olomouc (Mgr. Martin Foret and Ing. arch. Tomáš Prokůpek).
Series and regular events:
Varianty
The Varianty series aims to provide access to texts by textologists and editors both at home and abroad, both contemporary and classics in the field. These volumes are conceived as selections or sets of works by individuals working both here and abroad. The series will provide a chrestomathy of individual current issues in textological discourse, reviews of the current situation in the field in various linguistic areas and practical examples of new editing and textological solutions (experimental series).
Published to date:
Volume 1: Miroslav Červenka: Textological studies
Forthcoming:
Volume 2: Michal Kosák and Jiří Flaišman: Three Chapters from the History of Czech Textology and Editing Practice
Volume 3: Alexandr Stich: Sabina – Němcová – Havlíček and Other Studies
Volume 4: Jiří Daňhelka: Textological Studies from Older Czech Literature
Volume 5: Oldřich Králík: Mácha – Neruda – Bezruč – Olbracht
Volume 6: Michael Špirit: Textology Today
Edice E
Department members run the Edice E website (www.ucl.cas.cz/edicee), which in digital image format presents both new publications not brought out as books (especially collections of papers) and more recent publications (e.g. the four-volume anthology From the History of Czech Thought on Literature). At the same time Edice E provides access to key publications (compendia, anthologies, collections of papers, reference works, series and so forth) that have been brought out over the Institute's sixty-plus years of existence, e.g.: Dějiny české literatury (History of Czech Literature) 1–4, Avantgarda známá a neznámá (Known and Unknown Avant-garde) 1–3, Soubor díla F. X. Šaldy (The Collected Works of F. X. Šalda) (21 volumes), Jak číst poezii (How to Read Poetry) and Slovník básnických knih (Dictionary of Poetic Works). The series also includes difficult-to-find samizdat collections published to mark the life anniversaries of prominent Institute staff (e.g. M. Červenka, R. Havel, M. Jankovič and Z. Pešat).
Textological colloquia
As of 2009, when the first annual textological colloquium took place at the Institute on 19th November under the title of Issues in Current Editorial Practice, the Department is to arrange a meeting of specialists and enthusiasts every year to discuss the issues surrounding the presentation of text and special textological questions. In November 2010, Mácha's anniversary year, the second annual textological colloquium will take place, focusing on the current state of editorial work on K. H. Mácha's works.
Tuition:
Departmental staff have taken part and continue to take part in university tuition at the Charles University Faculty of Arts Institute for Czech Literature and Literary Studies and the Czech Studies Department of the Pedagogical Faculty at Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem.
Departmental members:
Mgr. Jiří Flaišman, Ph.D. (head of the department)
External co-workers:
- Mgr. Martin Foret
- Mgr. Michal Jareš
- PhDr. Karel Kolařík
- Mgr. Tereza Nováková
- Mgr. Alena Ziebikerová
- Ing. arch. Tomáš Prokůpek
- Ziebikerová Alena