Text Poetics Department

The new name for the department established on 1.1.2003 corresponds to the new primary task, which in the 2003-2005 period will indeed revolve around text poetics. In view of its theoretical-comparative orientation, the Department understands 'text' in the broadest sense of the word, from the literary text to e.g. "the city as text". The results of this project, entitled The Text in Motion (supported by a grant from the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic), will be a collection of monographs and five interdisciplinary colloquia arranged at the Lanna Villa, of which there have already been four over the last few years: the first colloquium took place 9th June 2003 (with papers read by D. Hodrová, Z. Hrbata, M. Jankovič and J. Matonoha); the second colloquium took place 12th November 2003 (with papers read by M. Marcelli, M. Petříček and D. Hodrová); the third colloquium took place 8th June 2004 (with papers read by I. Vaňková, M. Kubínová and M. Jankovič) and the fourth colloquium took place 23rd November 2004 (with papers read by M. Petříček, L. Bydžovská, O. Král and M. Langerová).

The work of the Text Poetics Department includes an individual research project by M. Červenka Czech Poetic Metre (a GA CR grant-aided project, 2004-2006) and until recently there was also an individual grant-aided project by L. Jungmannová Unofficial Czech Drama 1948-1989 (Czech Ministry of Culture grant-aided project, 2000-2004).

The previous output of the Department includes an extensive scholarly publication on the poetics of 20th century literature, which is an attempt to synthesize literary-theoretical and literary-historical approaches towards literature as viewed from various methodological standpoints from detailed analysis and interpretation to its gnoseological and ontological foundations, on the basis of which it emerges as a living, changing, dynamic whole. It is made up of several volumes: ...On the Brink of Chaos... (2001), Close-up Views: Sound, Meaning and Image (2002) and the final volume, On the Road to Sense, comes out in 2005.

The first volume is for the most part by D. Hodrová (with some chapters on drama by L. Jungmannová and N. Vangeli), includes general chapters on literary works and series of chapters on composition, characters and plots; the second volume by M. Červenka, M. Jankovič, M. Kubínová and M. Langerová focuses primarily on poetry, specifically on the issues surrounding intonation, rhyme, rhythm (even in prose), metaphor and visual effects in poetry. The third volume by M. Červenka, J. Holý, Z. Hrbata, L. Jungmannová, M. Kubínová, M. Langerová, Z Mathauser and N. Vangeli focuses on the problem of the relationship between the literary work and reality, space-time, narration, literary communication and the sense of the literary work.

The Department members also teach at Charles University Philosophical Faculty: M. Červenka, DrSc. (Czech Literature and Literary Studies Department), doc. PhDr. Z. Hrbata, CSc. (Comparative Studies Centre), PhDr. L. Jungmannová, Ph.D. (Drama Studies Department) and Mgr. Jan Matonoha (Czech Literature and Literary Studies Department).

Department members

Projects currently under way

• Text in Motion (collective work) - an open series of books linked by the topic of text in its various conceptions and aspects, with a multiple objective including detailed literary and non-literary text analysis using various approaches to contribute to a transformation in literary-theoretical thinking, and to open a forum for interdisciplinary discussion by means of an open series and colloquia.
• Czech poetic metre (Miroslav Červenka) - presents a linguistic, literary-historical and semiotic image of Czech stressed verse forms from the reform of Dobrovský (1795) to the mid-20th century.