Jana Pátková | Charles University, Prague (original) (raw)

Papers by Jana Pátková

Slovenská literatúra, 2024

The study focuses on analysing the asymmetrical relationship between two distinct yet closely con... more The study focuses on analysing the asymmetrical relationship between two distinct yet closely connected literary systems. The problem areas of Czech-Slovak biliteracy after 1989 include, for example, the work of the so-called dual authors and their incorporation into the literary context, Slovak literature emerging in Prague, and forms of cultural transfer as evidence of intercultural communication. The study presents the current state of research on the biliteracy of the literary field up to 1989 and then innovatively extends the scope to the situation after 1993, after the division of the common state, when the historically defined intercultural dialogue from earlier periods was replaced by a new type of communication. Although the conditions for the emergence of biculturalism were no longer part of cultural politics, examples of bicultural authors exist in both Czech and Slovak literature (Egon Bondy, Fedor Gál, Ľubomír Feldek). The forms of cultural transfer are important in both directions, albeit with typological differences. The transfer of the discussion of freedom of speech to the Czech space is of a different type than the cultural transfer in the work of Peter Karvaš and Ján Števček or, in the opposite direction, the case of the transfer of mythical narratives from Czech literature to contemporary Slovak prose.

Perspektívy retrospektívy III. (slovenská literatúra po roku 1989), 2024

The study focuses on the value and aesthetic transformations that occurred in Slovak literature i... more The study focuses on the value and aesthetic transformations that occurred in Slovak literature in the new geopolitical and geocultural situation after 1989 and after the division of the common state in January 1993. On the one hand, the mental image of the Czechs is composed of a number of stereotypes and clichés that were part of the older depiction of Czech-Slovak relations in both Slovak and Czech literature. After 1989, new images have been promoted which rely on a subversive, i.e. ironic or parodic mode of depiction in the aesthetic plan of literary works. In four steps, the study presents various strategies for portrayting Czechs and Czech culture in Slovak literature: 1. the cultural atmosphere in the post-dependence period in the 1990s (subversive approach to tradition; neutralisation of nationalistically motivated images; continuous reference to the cultural tradition of Czech-Slovak relations); 2. The exclusion of Czechs from public life in the historical narrative; 3. The image of Prague between the transfer station to the West and the tradition of job opportunities for Slovaks; 4. Metaphorical images of the Czech-Slovak family. Methodologically, it draws on the fields of imagology and postcolonial criticism, which are complemented by the theory of post-dependence. The discourse of post-dependence makes it possible to define the development and specifics of Slovak culture after 1989.

Studia Slavica, 2024

The study focuses on the postcolonial analysis of the development of mutual Czech-Slovak relation... more The study focuses on the postcolonial analysis of the development of mutual Czech-Slovak relations from the 19th century to the first half of the 20th century. The core of the analysis are specific literary representations of these mutual relationships based on the textual corpus of Czech and Slovak literature. In the broader public discourse of Central European literature, Czech-Slovak relations are only rarely analysed using postcolonial criticism. In the field of literary science, this is an unexplored area of Czech-Slovak relations. The contribution therefore seeks to complement postcolonial research on the material of Czech and Slovak non-fiction texts, as well as neglected novels. It focuses on the postcolonial analysis of literary representations of mutual Czech-Slovak relations, which developed between paternalism and colonialism in the observed period. The critical reading of these literary representations is based on the description of power relations identifiable through more or less conspicuous features of superiority and subordination, which are relevant to interpret through postcolonial theories. The author of the paper is aware of the specifics and differences of power relations between small cultures in the Central European area compared to the analysis of relations between a large empire and a politically subordinate colonial culture. For this reason, he expands the repertoire of terminology from postcolonial criticism (Homi H. Bhabha and Edward W. Said) and uses not only the basic terms colonialism and Orientalism, but also other terms to define the diverse scale of the power relationship of the Czechs to Slovak culture, e.g. paternalism (to introduce the Czech figure of the elder brother), pre-colonialism (to introduce the Czech figure of the savior) and anticolonialism (to introduce the Czech figure of the Slovaks as victims). Using postcolonial terminology, the study approaches specific literary figures that have become part of Czech thinking about Slovak culture. The situation of Slovak culture in the observed period can be interpreted through Kiossev’s metaphor of self-colonization, which reflects the positive reception of the cultural and educational mission of the Czechs in Slovakia. The used corpus of texts from Czech and Slovak literature and its analysis served as a starting point for understanding cultural stereotypes and literary representations of nascent national identities. Czech colonialism developed in the political, cultural and linguistic framework, first as a recognition of Slovakia by Czech slovakophiles, after 1918 it was already part of the discussion in the public space. All these period attitudes of the Czechs towards Slovakia were prescribed in literary texts of a fictional and non-fictional nature and as part of the Czech cultural memory they filled the Czech cultural myth about Slovakia.

Literárne krajiny Bratislavy : obraz mesta po roku 1918, 2023

The study analyses the image of Bratislava in interwar Czech travelogues and novels through the e... more The study analyses the image of Bratislava in interwar Czech travelogues and novels through the eyes of postcolonial criticism. Its primary focus is on the analysis of the literary representations of Bratislava in various modalities and narratives. The Slovakophile way of capturing Bratislava, as seen in L. N. Zvěřina's legionary novel, continues before 1918, where a sarcastic opposition to the emotional relationship to Slovakia takes place. In the 1930s, a new modality arises, highlighting Bratislava's oriental imagery (S. K. Neumann, V. Nezval, J. Seifert). The Czech perspective includes a variety of specific figures that explain the Czechs' view on the transformation of the originally German-Hungarian city into Slovak Bratislava. For example, the figure of the Czech appropriation of Bratislava, the figure of the Czechs as saviors and the Slovaks as victims in the fight for the Bratislava-Danube bridge. In the context of Bratislava's urban culture, the new modality introduces new images, especially exotic, oriental images of Bratislava's wine bars and cafés. Bratislava's literary representations alternate between images of home and colony.

Česká literatura, 2023

This paper focuses on the literary representation of Slovakia in selected travelogues by Czech au... more This paper focuses on the literary representation of Slovakia in selected travelogues by Czech authors. The subject of the research is that of cultural stereotypes, images of the other, and constructions of us and them. The corpus of travelogues covers the period from the 1830s to the end of the 1930s. The methodological framework for analysing travelogues includes several diverse approaches. In addition to literaryhistory classification, the study employs an imagological approach while also taking into account an approach based on postcolonial theories in the context of the interpretation of cultural stereotypes. The material is divided into four historical periods with regard to the form and changing face of Czech-Slovak dialogue. Through the travelogue material under review we can analyse how the image of Slovakia within the Czech cultural myth of Slovakia has been shaped and transformed over the course of a century.

K vybraným aspektom slovenskej literatúry po roku 1989 IV. Interkultúrne komunikačné a komparatistické výzvy , 2022

Jana Pátková focuses on the contextualisation of Stanislav Rakús' prose in the Czech reading envi... more Jana Pátková focuses on the contextualisation of Stanislav Rakús' prose in the Czech reading environment after 1989. His literary work is an example that makes it possible to trace the reception of Slovak literature in the Czech environment. The translation is a mediator in the communication process and literary criticism should play a key role. In the Czech literary context, the reflection of Slovak literature has a specific position. Due to the common past and cultural proximity, Slovak reviewers are represented among the literary critics of contemporary Slovak literature. Czech literary criticism focuses only on reviewing book titles translated from Slovak into Czech. The problem of Czech literary critics is their low knowledge of the older authorial context and the history of translation in the past. Slovak literary criticism works with the author's context, but neglects the contextualisation of the book in the Czech reading environment. Mutual cultural relations are perceived as asymmetric. Asymmetry is highlighted by the change in Czech-Slovak biliteracy. Both are reflected in the formation of the literary canon. Making the Slovak literary canon accessible to Czech readers has a different form compared to the form of the Czech literary canon in Slovakia. While Czech readers orient themselves only in the field of popular literature in Slovakia, Slovak readers know fragments from the Czech literary canon, for example Karel Čapek or Božena Němcová. The starting point is the cultural closeness declared over generations, which predestines Slovak literature to a better knowledge than it receives at present. One of the relevant ways to get to know Slovak literature better is by careful selecting a book to translate and making a good translation.

Portraying Countryside in Central European Literature. Jakub Ivánek - Jan Malura (eds.), 2021

The story of the depiction of the Slovak village in Czech travelogues over the course of one cent... more The story of the depiction of the Slovak village in Czech travelogues over the course of one century also tells of the competition between idyllic and exotic procedures in the Czech cultural myth of Slovakia. The authors’ strategies for depicting the exotic character of nineteenth century Slovakia fluctuate between accentuating civilizational otherness and employing partial, often less obvious, procedures known from Oriental travelogues. The travelogues of the first half of the twentieth century open the way to a subjective point
of view which competes with the initial ideological frameworks and highlights a paradigm shift in the perception of the Slovak landscape, Slovaks and their language. The rich inner world of the author’s imagination is becoming a new source of exoticism. Czech travelogues no longer followed the older types of discovery of Slovakia after 1945. This was due to the different socio-political as well as cultural circumstances of Slovakia’s entry into the common concept of a new state. A century of journeys of Czech authors to Slovakia also terminated with the end of the First Republic, and the mutual discovery of our cultures moved to other genre areas.

Perspectives of V4 Translation Studies : Studies, Considerations and Contributions on Translation between Czech, Hungarian, Polish and Slovakian Languages, Anita Huťková – Simona Kolmanová – Andor Mészáros – Szabolcs Németh – Zoltán Németh – Lenka Németh Vítová – Anita Račáková, (eds.), 2021

CHILDREN'S LITERATURE IN SLOVAKIA, OR WHAT WAS LOST IN / FROM TRANSLATION AFTER 1989 The paper f... more CHILDREN'S LITERATURE IN SLOVAKIA,
OR WHAT WAS LOST IN / FROM TRANSLATION AFTER 1989
The paper focuses on the form of children's literature translated from Slovak into Czech language after 1989. The strategy of selecting individual titles for translation does not correspond to the diversity of children's literature in Slovakia, which means that some key texts
remain inaccessible to the Czech readers of juvenile literature, e.g., books by Peter Karpinský or authored by the tandem Slavka Liptáková and Fero Lipták. The above-mentioned authors represent an important chapter in the post-revolutionary development of children's literature.
At the same time, more systematic reflections on Slovak literature for children are lacking in Czech professional and popularization journals. The practical part of the translation is devoted to two books by Slavka Liptáková and Fero Lipták: Chlapec bez mena and Dierožrút. The first one deals with the strategy of translating the word ‘chlapec’ into Czech while the other one with the introductory part in the book, where the author works with the rhyming connection ‘kopce - domce’, also reflecting that Czech offers only some specific solutions as suitable.

Slovenská literatúra, 2021

The paper focuses on the literary representations of Bratislava in Czech travelogues and formulat... more The paper focuses on the literary representations of Bratislava in Czech travelogues and formulates various narratives of those depictions of the city that are related to the establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918. The paper compares Karel Kálal’s and Ivan Hálek’s travelogues of the so-called pre-coup period – the period before 1918 – with texts of the same genre written during the First Czechoslovak Republic (Jakub Deml, Josef Váchal, Karel Čapek, Marie Majerová, S. K. Neumann). The travelogues drew attention to the traditional culture of Slovaks (represented by Karel Plicka’s photographs) and sought new forms of Czech-Slovak relations in the political atmosphere of the so-called Czechoslovakism. Bratislava, which entered new cultural relations with the establishment of the new republic, occupied a specific place in these. The
reconstruction of the image of Bratislava in the analysed texts shows that it did not become the main symbol of the changes that took place after 1918. The travelogues
represent it only marginally and Bratislava corresponds to the perspective of the socalled null morpheme. The article employs the theory of imagology and, marginally,
also theories of postcolonialism.

K vybraným aspektom slovenskej literatúry po roku 1989. I. Lexikografické a recepčné výzvy, 2020

Foreign and Ours: Czech Literature After the Split of Czechoslovakia using the Example of the RAK... more Foreign and Ours: Czech Literature After the Split of Czechoslovakia using the Example of the RAK Literary Journal. Jana Pátková in her study looks into the reception of Czech literature in RAK (RAK-Revue aktuálnej kultúry) a journal that was published in Slovakia between 1996-2014. The journal adopted a new approach to contemporary literature based on intellectual views and sharpness of the founding editors (P. Darovec and V. Barborík) and presented a series of original columns and sections to reflect on books and the literary context. Pátková observes that Czech literature and its image after the Velvet Revolution in Slovak culture has been reflected minimally despite the closeness of Slovak and Czech cultures before 1989. RAK was one of the exceptions and occasionally (rather than systematically) offered insight into contemporary literary production in Czechia. The journal did not attempt to cover the whole of Czech literature but rather a personal selection that either picked world-famous Czech authors (K. Čapek, J. Hašek or M. Kundera) or writers with whom they shared artistic values. Pátková traces the key articles, in which there were analyses of Czech literature (including one "Czech issue" focused solely on Czech literature) conducted by both Czech and Slovak literary critics and historians. In her concluding ideas, she states that despite obvious insufficiency in what was once rich cultural exchange, there remain, in terms of mutual cultural interest, much better results on the Slovak side.

Litikon. Časopis pre výskum literatúry, roč. 5, č. 1, 2020

The paper focuses on translations from Slovak into Czech after 1989 on the example of a key post-... more The paper focuses on translations from Slovak into Czech after 1989 on the example of a key post-revolutionary text by Peter Pišťanek. In connection with the recent anniversary of the thirty years since the revolution, the key texts of the post-revolutionary period were also intensively discussed. Pišťanek's novel Rivers of Babylon from 1991 repeatedly appeared in the most diverse reviews and balances in important places. The Czech reflection of Pišťanek's key book of the post-revolutionary period has a different value message than the one we encounter in the Slovak context. The quality of the translation and its delayed introduction in the Czech language, which was absolutely essential for the Czech-Slovak literary context, also played an important role in the contextualization of the text in the Czech environment. On a deeper analysis of Pišťanek's novel texts, it is possible to demonstrate in which other inter literary and intercultural connections the quality of translation is inscribed.

Kontakty literatúry (modely, identity, reprezentácie), Magdalena Bystrzak – Radoslav Passia – Ivana Taranenková (eds.): , 2020

This study is dedicated to literary representations of Prague in the novels of Slovak authors of ... more This study is dedicated to literary representations of Prague in the novels of Slovak authors of the interwar period. The city of Prague has attracted the attention of Slovak authors since the National Revival. The image of the city is not consistent in literary texts but, rather, diverse takes on varying images and meanings. Even though the Prague of the National Revival and the First Republic is spoken of in literary theory as an important and inspiring place for Slovak literature, its literary representations after the beginning of the First Republic tend to depict a Prague full of pessimistic visions with destructive elements. Unlike older, 19th century, literary representations of Prague, First Republic novels are written as unidealized stories, rid of the poetics of Revival glorification. The body of work followed in this study includes novels by Martin Kukučín (Lukáš Blahosej Krasoň), Milo Urban (Hmly na úsvite) and Gejza Vámoš (Atómy Boha). Each if these authors works with a qualitatively different type of relationship between Czechs and Slovaks after the founding of Czechoslovakia in 1918.

K teoretickým a praktickým aspektom slovenskej literárnej kritiky po roku 2000, 2019

This study is dedicated to the assessment of Slovak literature in Czech periodicals between the y... more This study is dedicated to the assessment of Slovak literature in Czech periodicals between the year 2000 and 2019. The chosen literary periodicals are heterogeneous. This means that periodicals fulfilling varying roles in Czech culture appear alongside each other, from strictly literary publications to social and cultural magazines. These include Host from Brno, A2, Tvar and Literární noviny from Prague as well as a regional magazine with a long tradition (from 1996) called Texty. The online source available at www.iliteratura.cz, in which Slovak literature has a consistent place, proved itself to be a suitable supplement to these printed sources. We may follow a representative assessment of the development of Slovak literary theory or literary history in strictly academic publications such as Česká literatura or Slavia - časopis pro slovanskou filologii. All the aforementioned periodicals present a rich field of materials, from which we may garner a literary and critical assessment of Slovak literature through reviews, micro-reviews, author spotlights, original Slovak poetry and prose, and also academic studies and articles on Slovak literature. The strategies of the editors-in-chief of the aforementioned publications are diverse. The only thing they have in a common is the lack of consistency and systematicness in their explorations of our closest culture and its literary traditions.

Střední Evropa Rudolfa Chmela. Studie k 80. narozeninám, 2019

Studie se zaměřuje na české a slovenské cestopisy ze čtyřicátých let 19. století (Jan Helcelet, V... more Studie se zaměřuje na české a slovenské cestopisy ze čtyřicátých let 19. století (Jan Helcelet, Vilém Dušan Lambl, Václav Staněk, František Ladislav Rieger a Gašpar Fejérpataky-Belopotocký). Analýza komunikačních schémat upozorňuje na sociální síť mezi českou a slovenskou vlasteneckou společností, kterou rozděloval spor mezi Štúrem a Kollárem. Cestopisy jsou dokladem bohatého vlasteneckého života české i slovenské společnosti, které v daném období na pozadí jazykové otázky řešily klíčový problém dalšího kulturního směřování.

Česká literatura, 2018

The primary objective of the present study was to carry out a comparative analysis of the texts o... more The primary objective of the present study was to carry out a comparative analysis of the texts of two novels (Levoča and Nová země) set in Slovakia at the time of the emergence of the new Czechoslovak Republic. The comparative approach is interwoven here with the discourse of post-colonialism and the theory of imagology. In the second half of the 1920s, Ladislav Narcis Zvěřina and Jan Václav Rosůlek created two quite distinct images of post-1918 Slovakia. Both texts amount to colonization novels, each providing a different image of the chaotic socio-political situation following the arrival of Czechs in Slovakia during the first months of the existence of the new republic. Zvěřina's version is closely aligned to the tradition of the Czech Slovakophiles who had gradually come to know Slovakia and took a more emotional approach to the issue of Czech-Slovak relations. However, the reality of those early days collapses under the weight of a love affair, which is intended, through the metaphor of the family, to consolidate the fraternal bond between Czechs and Slovaks. Rosůlek treats the Slovakophile tradition with irony and detachment, which enables him to gain experience and cognizance of Slovakia via the intellect. The conflict between intellect and emotion in the evolution of Czech-Slovak relations reaches far back into the nineteenth century. Despite the differences between the underlying concepts, both authors offer a similar model of the common enemy, having regard to numerous earlier literary stereotypes rooted in the national self-image that came to be exploited in the new time-space context of the First Republic to furnish an updating of Czech- Slovak reciprocity. The study analyses the different concepts of nation as subjected to presentation in literature. Although each of the authors operates with different narrative standpoints and methods, both tend towards a common objective: support for and defence of the rationale behind the emergence of the Czechoslovak Republic.

Minulosť, súčasnosť a perspektívy literárnovednej slovakistiky doma a vo svete, 2018

The conference contribution deals with the literary historical activities of Emil Charous, who be... more The conference contribution deals with the literary historical activities of Emil Charous, who belong to well-known Czech professional in Slovak language and literature. Emil Charous, in his extensive corpus of texts (from anthologies to secondary school manuals), formulated his own insight into Slovak literature and the relationship between Czech and Slovak literature, which he describes as a centripetal and centrifugal model of literature. For Emil Charous's research in Slovak literature, it is a fundamental focus of our mutual literary relations on the image of Prague. His view of Slovak literature is specified through the Czech-Slovak literary context. The paper analyzes its specific concept of Slovak literature on the material of Czech literary historical handbooks.

Naša/Vaša prvá republika - Naše/Vaše první republika , 2018

The paper deals with the period of the First Republic and tries to characterize the role played b... more The paper deals with the period of the First Republic and tries to characterize the role played by Emil Charous in the value reading of Slovak literature by the Czech Slovakist. The significance of the First Republic for the formation and periodization of Slovak literature and, consequently, Czech-Slovak mutual relations have a key position in Charous's reading. The reflections of the Czech Slovakist on Czech and Slovak literature at the time of the First Republic aim to capture the activities of Slovak literary and visual artists to represent Slovak culture in Prague. The theme of the First Republic in the creation of Emil Charous belongs to the key and many levels of his thinking about literature and culture already worked. However, this is not a closed subject; on the contrary, many of the research questions remain open for further clarification.

Kosmas: Czechoslovak and Central European Journal. New Series, 2018

As Vladimír Barborík noted about historical narratives: "It is not somuch about saying something ... more As Vladimír Barborík noted about historical narratives: "It is not somuch about saying something new (for that you would need to recognize what had already been said) but about forgetting what has already been said and 'discovering' the subject anew."24 It is clear that telling stories set against the backdrop of war means pushing this primary theme into forms of dramatization, like focusing on the problematic nature of the narrative situation, or, on the thematic and idea level, shifting the basic images into different levels of communication, like by juxtaposing them with other key traumas of the 20th century. The temporal remove from the war is reflected today in the specific role of the narrator, who approaches the images of war from the position of proclaimed epic remove. In the case of fiction, detailed work with facts and documents of the time enrich the fictional story with a historical scope. The treatment of the theme of Shoah and Porajmos is, at its root, quite diverse, on the one hand continuing to support historical stereotypes firmly rooted in the mentality of the Slovak nation, on the other hand, at least in particular cases, offering new connections and new interpretations of historical events.

Slovenská literatúra, 2018

The study focuses on the conception of Czech-Slovak mutuality in one of the key travel texts of t... more The study focuses on the conception of Czech-Slovak mutuality in one of the key travel texts of the 19th century, in the Hurban's Cesta Slováka ku bratrům slavenským na Moravě a v Čechách (Path of the Slovak to the Slavic brothers in Moravia and Bohemia) in 1839 (1841). As a type of so-called National Revival travelogue, it carries a number of stereotypical constructions, which are used in other texts of travelogue genre of the 19th century in the Czech and Slovak literature. In the thirties and forties of the 19th century, the National Revival type of travelogue had a precise function, relying on modelling the positive representation of Slavic mutuality or Czech-Slovak mutuality. Hurban's travelogue reflects this developmental position in the form of an emblematic capture of the landscape, with emphasis on meta-linguistic reflections on common language and modelling of stereotypical constructions in imaging close and different ethnicities. The study analyzes the text in relation to both Czech and Slovak pretexts, which together form a specific paradigm system of national emblems and symbols. Hurbanova koncepce česko-slovenské vzájemnosti na příkladu obrozenského cestopisu Jana Pátková Key words: travelogue, Romanticism, Czech-Slovak mutuality, Slavs, Slovak literature, J. M. Hurban PÁTKOVÁ, J.: J. M. Hurban conception of Czech-Slovak mutuality on the travelogue example SLOVENSKÁ LITERATÚRA 65, No. 3, p. 165-182 štúdie Klíčová slova: cestopis, romantismus, česko-slovenská vzájemnost, Slované, slovenská literatura, J. M. Hurban

KIRÁLY PÉTER 100. TANULMÁNYKÖTET KIRÁLY PÉTER TISZTELETÉRE II., 2019