Kritika a autonomie českého umění (1859–1892) – Bendová Eva (2024)

The understanding of artistic creation as an autonomous activity with its own rules and criteria for evaluating success seems almost natural today; we often realize its non-obviousness during court proceedings against authors of works with controversial content. However, there were times when even the art world was not unified in its view of the autonomy of its production – the primacy of aesthetics in evaluation had to assert itself in intricate discussions about specific works. The authors of the book seek the focus of these negotiations in the early days of parliamentarism in our territory, when the growing confidence of the artistic sphere was expressed not only through production itself but also through the establishment of representative public spaces (the National Theatre in Prague, the Rudolfinum). Interdisciplinary research, inspired by sociological and literary-historical studies of the autonomization of art in France (P. Bourdieu, M. Einfalt), focuses on the critical response to literary, visual, and musical production that raised questions related to creators' obligations to society between 1859 and 1892. At the same time, it tracks the transformations of criticism itself, which reflected the growing degree of autonomy and clarified its own relationships with the audience and creators. The collective monograph presents...