Dostojevského buldok – Sýkora Michal (2006)

A more popular-oriented perspective on the famous novelists of the 19th century (Dostoevsky, Hugo, Turgenev, Flaubert, and others), supplemented by an illustrated appendix. The book aims to show how the way writers described animal behavior or their animal heroes reflects the contemporary atmosphere, the conception of science, and the significance of natural sciences in society, as well as the ethical and ecological norms of the time. The analysis of the scientific paradigm of the time in prose is supplemented by a chapter on the use of literary devices in the works of famous naturalists and travelers (especially in the works of Charles Darwin) and also on the characters of naturalists in fiction (Chekhov, Stevenson, and others). In conclusion, brief profiles will introduce those writers who were professionally or merely as a hobby engaged in zoology (Goethe, Poe, Nabokov). The book is an attempt at the practical application of the recently much-discussed 'new historicism' in our country. By linking literary science and zoology, and looking at the works of the classics through the way they depicted animals, it will represent an unconventional contribution to our literary scholarly production.