Václav Černý (literary scholar)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Memorial plaque for Václav Černý in Prague-Bubenec, Zelena ulice

Václav Černý (born March 26, 1905 in Jizbice near Náchod , Austro-Hungarian monarchy ; † July 2, 1987 in Prague , Czechoslovakia ) was a Czech literary scholar , comparativeist , Romance philologist , Hispanicist and translator.

Life

Václav Černý was the second-born son of the same name Václav Černý (1862-1941) and Františka, nee Ježková. From 1916 to 1921 he attended the Náchoder grammar school and then the Lycée Carnot in Dijon , where he graduated from the Baccalauréat in 1924 . He then studied Bohemian Studies , Romance Studies and Philosophy at Charles University in Prague until 1929 . In 1930 he worked as a secretary at the Institute for Slavic Studies ( Institut des études slaves ) at the University of Geneva , where he taught comparative literary studies from 1931 and completed his habilitation with the work " Bergson , la jeune poésie des peuples latins et le 'Poétisme' tchèque". In 1934 he returned to Prague and initially taught at secondary schools. Afterwards he was a lecturer in Romance studies at the Charles University, where he completed his habilitation in 1936 with the essay "Essai sur le titanisme dans la poésie romantique occidentale entre 1815 et 1850"; In addition, he taught Romance studies two days a week from 1938 at Masaryk University in Brno . Also in 1938 he founded the "Kritický měsíčník" ( Critical Monthly Bulletin ). The university activities were ended on November 1, 1939 by the special action in Prague , with which the Czech-speaking universities were closed by the German occupation of the Protectorate . During the war years, Černý taught at the secondary school in Prague. Since he had joined the Parsifal resistance group , he was arrested by the Gestapo on January 11, 1945 and held in Pankrác prison until the end of the war .

After the war ended in 1945 he returned to Charles University as a professor of comparative linguistics and literature. At the same time he took over the publication of the "Kritický měsíčník". Also in 1945 he led a delegation of some Czech citizens from the Bohemian corner, which had been German until then, to President Edvard Beneš in Prague, with the aim of annexing this border area with Czechoslovakia. In 1946 he was elected a member of the Czech Academy of Sciences and Arts . In the same year he was awarded the Czechoslovak War Cross and the University of Montpellier awarded him an honorary doctorate . In 1947 he published the collection "Dílo Jiřího Ortena ".

After the Communist Party came to power in February 1948 , there were soon arguments with agitators of the KSČ, as Černý advocated freedom of education and art in his lectures and contributions, which should remain independent of party political ideologies. After that, “Kritický měsíčník” was no longer allowed to appear, nor was the second, ready-to-print issue on existentialism .

In 1951 Václav Černý had to leave the university and was imprisoned again. After his release without conviction in March 1953, he worked in a subordinate position at the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences , founded in 1952 , where he was allowed to do limited research, but not to publish. He was later able to publish in specialist journals - including foreign ones. From 1960 he worked in the archive of the Academy of Sciences, for which he identified and cataloged manuscripts from state libraries and nationalized monasteries and castles. While doing this, he discovered an almost 300-year-old manuscript of the drama "El gran duque de Gandía" in the Kuenburg castle library of Mladá Vožice . Although it was written anonymously and had not been printed until then, Černý was able to prove that the author was Pedro Calderón de la Barca . The play was written in 1671 to celebrate the canonization of the Jesuit Francisco de Borja . After the find, Černý prepared the Spanish manuscript for printing and publication by the Academy of Sciences. He used French for the introduction, notes and glossary. The work was published in 1963 by the Prague Academy Publishing House under the original title in an edition of 3000 copies. In 1964, Černý was allowed to give a lecture in Vienna on “The Unknown World Drama Calderón”, which was published in 1965 in the theater science journal “Maske und Kothurn”. On May 24, 1966, the drama was premiered as part of the Wiener Festwochen under the changed title “Die Welt ist Trug”. Direction and editing: Ulrich Baumgartner .

In 1965 Černý was appointed as a foreign member of the Royal Spanish Academy of Sciences . After the Prague Spring , he was allowed to continue his previous position as a professor at Charles University in the autumn of 1968, but had to leave it in 1970 due to forced retirement. His memoirs, "Křk Koruny české", with the subtitle Náš kulturní odboj za války 1938–1940 , printed in 1970, were banned and liquidated. He was then again monitored by the State Security . His works were only published abroad, including at 68 Publishers , which was founded in 1971 by the Náchod writer Josef Škvorecký in Toronto and published numerous works by contemporary Czech authors. There was a collaboration with the daily "Lidová demokracie", which enabled him to publish literary essays. In 1977 Černý was one of the signatories of Charter 77 . After the Velvet Revolution in 1991 he was posthumously awarded the Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk Order .

Václav Černý was married to Miloslava Černá. The family grave is located at the cemetery in Prague - Strašnice .

Works (selection)

  • Staroplzeňský boj za právo , 1941
  • Buje a směry socialistické kultury , 1946
  • Osobnost, tvorba a boj , 1947
  • Staročeská milostná lyrika , 1948
  • Knížka o Babičce , 1963
  • L 'Apothéose de Pierre le Grand etc , 1964
  • Les manuscrits néolatins de la bibliothèque du Musée National de Prague , 1964
  • Kéž hoří popel můj , 1967
  • Study ze starší světové literatury , 1969
  • Study a eseje z moderní světove literatury , 1969
  • Jaroslav Seifert: náčrt k portrétu , 1984
  • O povaze naší kultury , 1991
  • První a druhý sešit o existencialismu , 1992
  • Paměti ( memoirs )

Published by Sixty-Eight Publishers (selection)

literature

  • Aleš Fetters: Václac Černý v rodném kraji. Sborník k nedožitým narozeninám univ. Prof. Václava Černého . Nakladatelství JUKO, Náchod 1994 ( CV Václav Černý pp. 61–66; CV of his father of the same name pp. 67–72.)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Paměti 1921–1938, p. 364
  2. ^ The edition did not appear posthumously until 1992.
  3. ↑ Vaclav Černý: Paměti , Toronto 1983, pp. 532-539
  4. ↑ DER SPIEGEL: Find in the castle, No. 23/1964, pp. 118f.
  5. ↑ http://www.literarischesleben.uni-goettingen.de/1966.html Annual Chronicle of Literary Life 1966
personal data
SURNAME Černý, Václav
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Vaclav Cerny
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czech literary scholar, comparativeist, Romanist and translator
DATE OF BIRTH March 26, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Jizbice u Náchoda , Austro-Hungarian monarchy
DATE OF DEATH 2nd July 1987
Place of death Prague , Czechoslovakia