Znaky a přízraky Výbor ze statí o české a středoevropské literatuře – Galmiche Xavier (2023)

This Czech-language paperback presents a thematically arranged selection of four dozen essays by French Czech-literature scholar Xavier Galmiche, written between 2000 and 2021. Alongside studies of the spiritual line in Czech writing as a legacy of the Baroque spirit, including K. H. Mácha, O. Březina, J. Váchal, J. Deml, V. Holan and B. Reynek, it examines phenomena and tendencies shared across Central Europe, such as multiculturalism, multilingualism and the transformation of fin-de-siècle and emerging modernist culture. In these comparative essays, Galmiche explores both overlooked subjects, such as nineteenth-century humorous literature, and canonical ones, including the Manuscript controversies, with particular sensitivity to “essential outsiders.” He approaches modern classics such as B. Hrabal, M. Kundera and J. Topol without rigid formulas, offering new contexts for reading them. The final section focuses on translation and cultural transfer, especially Czech-French relations, and the book concludes with an extensive interview between Jiří Pelán and the author.