Josef Svatopluk Machar

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Anton Josef Trčka : Josef Svatopluk Machar (1914)

Josef Svatopluk Machar (born February 29, 1864 in Kolín , Austrian Empire ; died March 17, 1942 in Prague ), also known under the pseudonym Prof. Dr. Čeněk Folklor (also Antonín Rousek, Leo Leonhardi and others), was a Czech poet, prose writer, satirist, publicist, politician and author of the Česká moderna manifesto as well as a representative of critical realism, a freemason.

Life

Machar, the son of a miller, studied at the grammar school in Prague, then completed the one-year military school and in 1891 took a job as an employee at a bank in Vienna , where he wrote for various magazines at the same time. Here he met TG Masaryk and became an important representative of the Realist Party. Even before the First World War he appeared as an opponent of hollow patriotism. After 1918 he returned to Czechoslovakia at Masaryk's request and was appointed Inspector General of the Czechoslovak Army . He resigned this position in 1924 because of openly resolved differences of opinion with Masaryk and moved to the camp of the radical right.

Works

In his works he openly dealt with bourgeois society. He criticized their indifference, hypocrisy and false patriotism. His criticism also hit the Church and the Young Czechs . He faced the facts realistically, harshly, analytically and provocatively. He wrote subjective and political poetry and poetry, mixed with satire, irony and sarcasm. He continued the literary line of Karel Havlíček Borovský and Jan Neruda . He was also seen in part as a problematic writer with fascist views. Machar did not define Judaism as a denomination, but in ethnic and national categories. Nevertheless, the (frequently encountered) Jewish characters in his work are positively marked; he himself turned against anti-Semitism in the book Satiricon and the essay Amnesty .

In the struggles between the older and younger literary generation, he and other young writers founded the loose association Česká moderna and wrote a corresponding manifesto for this. In addition to František Xaver Šalda , Otokar Březina and Vilém Mrštík , it was Machar who, with his purely realistic poetry, exerted a great influence on Czech literature at the beginning of the 20th century. He served as a model, for example, for the great poet Stanislav Kostka Neumann .

Poetry

  • Confiteor (1887, "I confess"), volumes 1 to 3, a confession of a disappointment in love, at the same time socially oriented poetry, which has been criticized as too pessimistic
  • Four sonnet books: Letní sonety, Podzimní sonety, Zimní sonety, Jarní sonety (1891–1893, summer sonnets, autumn sonnets, winter sonnets, spring sonnets), disappointment in modern civilization, the poet criticizes society, wrong morality, the bourgeoisie, the politicians, etc.
  • Boží bojovníci (1896, about the "soldiers / fighters of God", as the Hussites called themselves), a satire on the dispute over the authenticity of the Grünberg manuscript and the Königinhofer manuscript , directed against the so-called party of the Young Czechs
  • Tristium Vindobona (1893, “Lamentations from Vienna”, the Latin title is based on Ovid's Tristia), one of Machar's best works, where he critically examines the love of the country and the feeling of the Czech nation
  • Zde by měly kvést růže (1894, “Here roses should bloom”), some women’s fates, critical examination of the position of women in society

novel

  • Magdalena

prose

  • Řím
  • Kriminál. (Features.)
    • German edition: Criminal.
  • V poledne
  • Svědomím věků
  • Konfese literáta (memories.)

Political Literature

  • Pět roků v kasárnách (1927)
  • Oni a já (1927)
  • Zapomínaní a zapomenutí (1929)
  • Při sklence vína (1929)
  • Manifesto České moderny (1895)

German-language publications

  • Barbarians, Vienna 1919
  • The poison from Judea, Vienna 1919
  • The galleys of the grammar school, Vienna 1919
  • In the ray of the Hellenic sun, Vienna 1919
  • Kriminal, Vienna 1919
  • Rome, Prague 1908, Vienna 1920, new edition: Badenweiler 2010, ISBN 978-3-940523-05-1
  • Rudolfinerhaus, Vienna 1920
  • Roses should bloom here ..., Potsdam 1923
  • The conscience of the times, Vienna

literature

  • Machar, Josef Svatopluk in the ÖBL (with a complete list of works and German translation of the Czech titles)
  • Fedor Soldan: Josef Svatopluk Machar , Prague 1974
  • Oskar Donath: Jewish in New Czech Literature , 1931 (see individual references)
  • Poet Machar and Professor Masaryk in the fight against clericalism. Edited and introduced by Dr. Emil Saudek . Anzengruber-Verlag, Vienna a. Leipzig [1912]

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ A broadcast by the television station ct24 on December 30, 2009, online: ct24 , accessed on January 14, 2010
  2. ^ Oskar Donath: Jewish in the new Czech literature. In: Samuel Steinherz (Ed.): Yearbook of the Society for the History of Jews in the Czechoslovak Republic, III. Year (1931) , p. 32 ff. (New edition: Textor Verlag, Frankfurt / M. 2008, preview on Google Books).

Web links

Wikisource: Josef Svatopluk Machar  - Sources and full texts
personal data
SURNAME Machar, Josef Svatopluk
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czech poet, prose writer, satirist, publicist, politician
DATE OF BIRTH February 29, 1864
PLACE OF BIRTH Kolín
DATE OF DEATH March 17, 1942
Place of death Prague