Editorial (en)

Editorial !is year’s first issue of Slovo asmysl, which you can hold in your hands or read in electronic version, includes thirteen articles in the section Studies and Sketches, with topics ranging from the Middle Ages to contemporary literature, from Czech to other European literatures, and from literary history to literary theory, textology and didactics of literature. In the first article, Kateřina Smyčková focuses on two remarkable texts from the Middle Ages and Early Modern period, Cena Cypriani and "e True Messiah Has Come into the World, and she analyses them in the broader context of parodic genre. Juan Sánchez provides an interpretation of the motif of ‘the freedom of consciousness’ in Cervantes’ Don Quixote which, surprisingly, occurs in relation to moriscos, the descendants of ancient Muslims on the Iberian Peninsula. To understand this motif one needs to evoke the political and religious context of the period as well as current discussions in Spanish studies. Catherine Ébert-Zeminová and Záviš Šuman carefully compare translations of two poems by Stéphane Mallarmé, "e Windows and "e Flowers, by eight Czech translators from the end of the 19th to the end of the 20thcentury. !e article by Żaneta Nalewajk on short forms in Samuel Becke(’s fiction relates these texts to the tradition of certain genres, such as the romantic fragment and the idea of ‘infinity’. !e two contributions that follow— each in its own way— are based on archival research. In his extensive article, Václav Vaněk focuses on the state of publication of works by Karel Havlíček Borovský, one of the most canonical figures of Czech literature. Although Havlíček’s writings a(racted significant editorial interest soon a+er his premature death, the knowledgeability and reliability of editions is not very satisfactory. !is is due on the one hand to the complicated historical context and o+en explosive character of the texts themselves, and, on the other, to efforts by the Czech cultural milieu to idealize the author. In his carefully selected examples, Vaněk presents adetailed account of this context, as well as anew textological discovery. Michal Topor draws on rich archival materials to reconstruct the multilayered relationship of the translator Emil Saudek to the chief object of his interest, the poet Otokar Březina. !e author thus also provides insight into the cultural politics of OPEN ACCESS 10 SLOVO A SMYSL 31 translation which was an important element of the relations between Czechs and Austrian Germans before and a+er the First World War. Joanna Królak and Piotr Ślusarczyk a(empt to penetrate the spiritual and intellectual world of František Drtikol, pointing out that the photographer can be considered neither aBuddhist nor acommunist since he treated both ‘doctrines’ in avery idiosyncratic way, and that it would be more appropriate to understand this connection in the context of misinterpretation. Instead, they interpret Drtikol’s worldview in the context of the self-fashioning and self-stylization of the modern artist, who takes his own existence as the work of art. In the article that follows, Jan Wiendl focuses on the lyric poetry wri(en by Václav Renč during his imprisonment. Wiendl considers nineteen poems from the section Without Echoes in "e Lark Tower, aselection of Renč’s poetry published in 1970. Wiendl seeks connections between the extreme situation of the poet’s long imprisonment and the development of his poetry, as it transitions from compositional and figurative refinement towards semantic austerity and depth. !e article by Josef Vojvodík also relates to the context of the totalitarian regime, but it addresses the Protectorate period and the topic of pathos and affectivity which feature prominently in the writings of two art historians with atragic destiny: Růžena Vacková and Pavel Kropáček. While Kropáček’s life ended prematurely in the Nazi extermination camp, Vacková was persecuted both during the Protectorate and a+er 1948, when she was imprisoned for 15 years on the basis of fabricated political trials (Renč was tried in similar fashion). Magdaléna Smějsíková deals with amore contemporary topic, analysing narrative and compositional techniques in the fiction of Anna Blažíčková, an author whose books for adult readers have been published mostly in the last decade. !e last three articles deal not with literary-historical but rather theoretical and methodological issues. Klára Čermochová inspects Polish and German versology from the Czech perspective, pointing out that while Polish versology has many aspects in common with Czech versology, as well as rich personal interconnections, German versology proceeds from very different principles and concepts. Ondřej Vojtíšek analyses interpretations of the works of Czech and world literature by members of the Faculty of Arts in Prague and the Institute of Czech Literature. He categorized these texts and videos on the basis of the literary-interpretive approaches that are dominant in each example, demonstrating clearly and concretely the possibilities of didactic interpretation targeted at secondary school students. !e last article of the issue, by Michael Špirit, is wri(en in the genre of ‘review essay’, commenting on the new book Textology by Michal Kosák and Jiří Flaišman and presenting apanorama of contemporary Czech textual criticism and practice. Critical Views contains five reviews: Matouš Jaluška assesses the book "e World of Don Quixote, put together by a team of Prague Hispanists; Vít Gvoždiak reviews the monograph From the Point of View of Meaning: Émile Benveniste and the Birth of Structuralism by Eva Krásová; Jiří Holý reflects on Miroslav Petříček’s new publication Philosophy en noir; Jan Budňák focuses on Foreigners or compatriots? Reflections on the German-speaking regions of Bohemia and Moravia in the texts of Arne Novák by Michal Topor; and Klára Soukupová writes about the Czech translation of "e Wri#en World: How Literature Shaped History, apopular history of the impact and forms of literary narratives by Martin Puchner. OPEN ACCESS 11 In the Translation section we present an article by the francophone Swiss literary historian Jérôme Meizoz, Modern Posterities of Posture: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, translated and with an introduction by Josef Šebek. Meizoz uses the example of the famous Genevan to explain his concept of the authorial posture as aself-presentation of the author both in and beyond the text. Red. OPEN ACCESS