Charles University in Prague – Faculty of Arts
Prague, Czech Republic
COURSE SYLLABUS
Czech Literature In and Out
(Offered for ECES, Erasmus/Socrates and other international students in programs affiliated
with Charles University)
Reading Prague
Topic-Oriented Shorter Course
Instructor: Mgr. Jan Matonoha (jmatonoha@volny.cz)
Scheduled
Length of the Course: 4 weeks, the course begins
Textbooks:
None. The reading consists of selected short stories and novels.
Description:
As we can talk about „the Prague`s texts“ (written either in or on Prague) on the one hand,
and about „Prague as a text“ on the other, in the course we shall attempt to explore various
types of this relationship (the specific poetics of texts and the specific poetics of the place
itself; city not only as a setting, but also as a character; as an outer projection of an inner state
of consciousness; as a palimpsest in the process of a constant rewriting etc.). On the beginning
of the course a short introduction to the history of Prague as well as basic facts and figures on
the „Prague writers“ will be provided.
Programme of the course:
1. Introduction
2. Neruda Mr. Vorel Broke in His Meerschaum; Meyrink GM.
3. Leppin Severin´s Journey Into the Dark. Meyrink The Golem.
4. Kafka The Trial. Hašek The Good Soldier Švejk
Primary sources:
Jan Neruda: „How Mr. Vorel Broke In His Meerschaum.“ In Tales of the Little Quarter.
Translated by Edith Pargeter. Heinemann, 1957.
Gustav Meyrink: "GM." In Wilson, Paul: Prague: A Traveler's Literary Companion
(Travelers' Literary Companions). San Francisco: Whereabouts Press, 1995. Also in The Opal
(and Other Stories). Sawtry : Dedalus, 1994
Gustav Meyrink: The Golem. New York: Dover Publications, 1986.
Paul Leppin: Severin`s Journey into the Dark. Translated by Kevin Blahut. Prague: Twisted
Spoon, 2001.
Jaroslav Hašek: The Good Soldier Švejk. Transl. by Cecil Parrott. London: Penguin, 2000.
Franz Kafka: The Trial. Transl. by Willa and Edwin Muir. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books,
1953.
Secondary literature:
BANVILLE, John Prague pictures: portraits of a city. New York : Bloomsbury, 2004.
BROD, Max Franz Kafka, a biography. New York : Schocken Books, 1960.
BROD, Max: Franz Kafka. Praha: Nakladatelství Franze Kafky, 2000.
BURTON, Richard Prague: a cultural and literary history. New York : Interlink Books,
2003.
DELEUZE, Gilles. Kafka : toward a minor literature Minneapolis : University of Minnesota
Press, 1986.
DEMETZ, Peter: Prague in Black and Gold: the history of a city. London: Penguin, 1997.
DERRIDA, Jacques “Before the Law” In Attridge, Derek (ed.) Jacques Derrida. Acts of
Literature. New York: Routledge, 1992.
FIEDLER, Leslie, A, "The Antiwar Novel and the Good Soldier Schweik", In: Collected
Essays. New York, 1971.
GILMAN, S. L. and Zipes, J. (ed.): Yale Companion to Jewish Writing and Thought in
German Culture 1096-1996. New Haven, Conn.; London: Yale University Press, 1997.
HODROVÁ, Daniela Město vidím. Praha : Euroslavica, 1992
HODROVÁ, Daniela Místa s tajemstvím. kapitoly z literární topologie Praha : KLP-Koniasch
Latin Press, 1994.
KÁLLAY, Karol: Franz Kafka and Prague. Prague: Slovart, 1996.
KAUTMAN, František: Svět Franze Kafky. Praha: Torst, 1990.
KOSATÍK, Pavel: Menší knížka o německých spisovatelích z Čech a Moravy. Praha:
Nakladatelství Franze Kafky, 2001.
KROUTVOR, Josef Praha - město ostrých hran. Praha : Volvox Globator, 1992.
MĚŠŤAN, Antonín: Česká literatura mezi Němci a Slovany. Praha: Academia, 2002.
MUMFORD, Lewis The city in history. Harmondsworth : Penguin; Secker & Warburg, 1966,
1961.
NOVÁK, Arne: Czech literature. Translated by Peter Kussi. Ann Arbor: University of
Michigan Press, 1986.
POLIŠENSKÝ, Josef Tisíciletá Praha očima cizinců Praha : Academia, 1999.
PORTER, Robert: An introduction to twentieth-century Czech fiction: comedies of defiance.
Portland, Or.: Sussex Academic Press, 2001
PREECE, Julian (ed.): The Cambridge companion to Kafka. Cambridge; New York:
Cambridge University Press, 2002.
PYTLÍK, Radko: The good soldier Švejk and the author Jaroslav Hašek: idiots have priority.
Prague: Emporius, 1999
RIPELLINO, Angelo Maria: Magic Prague. London: Picador, 1994.
Robert, Marthe: Sám jako Franz Kafka. Praha: Nakladatelství Franze Kafky, 2001.
SALFELLNER, Hans: Franz Kafka and Prague, Prague: Vitalis, 1998.
SAYER, Derek The Coasts of Bohemia. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998.
STERN, J. Peter (ed.) The World of Franz Kafka. London : G. Weidenfeld and Nicolson,
1980.
TIMMS, Edward: “Images of the City: Images of the City and the Intellectual Avant-garde.”
In Pynsent, Robert (ed.) Decadence and Innovation. Austo-Hungarian Life and Art at the
Turn of the Century. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1989.
WAGENBACH, Klaus. Franz Kafka. New York : Pantheon, 1984.
WAGENBACH, Klaus: Franz Kafka. Praha: Mladá fronta, 1967.
WELLEK, René Essays on Czech Literature. The Hague: Mouton, 1963.
WILSON, Paul (ed.) Prague : a traveler's literary companion. San Francisco : Whereabouts
Press, 1995.