Stýkání, nebo potýkání? (2012)

The history of Czech-German-Austrian, or Austrian-German-Czech (or perhaps German-Austrian-Czech?) verbal relations has always attracted considerable attention. And rightly so. The geographical proximity of both languages of these three cultures contributed to an extraordinarily fruitful exchange in all areas of cultural and social life, including literature, or more broadly, verbal expression. However, it was not always without disputes and conflicts. The book, after an introductory comparative overview, attempts to demonstrate through four probes some contacts and connections between Czech, German, and German-Austrian verbal expression during the period roughly dated from the Battle of White Mountain to the Napoleonic Wars. The presented probes aim to analyze several representative literary types as well as other, primarily non-verbal expressions of spiritual culture, namely the institutionalized university teaching of Czech. For temporal clarity, two topics were chosen primarily drawing from material up to 1750, while the other two pertain to the subsequent period; however, their temporal permeability is understandable, natural, and ultimately intended by the author.