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Home , Henri Barbusse, Ivan Olbracht, Josef Hora, Poetism, Viktor Dyk

and the First World War

Jlftl SKYOR

The 19th century has been called the "Age of Anxiety". The First World War was, in a way, an echo of this anxiety. Social instability and anxiety always take the upper hand when spiritual support is lacking. The time shortly before the First World War was just such a time in the history of mankind. shook European cultural life. It undermined spiritual and material stability, caused cultural and social chaos, and introduced into the whole civilized world a revolution of mind and thought. From the horror and misery of war sprang a realization of the absurdity of life. Nihilism spread into other spheres of life besides the purely cultural. It appeared that humanity lost its inner security and unity; that it was split into several personalities in conflict with one other, and that the obscure powers of the subconscious predominated. If we analyze the main works of literature from the era of World War I, we find a spontaneous negation of war, of its absurdity and cruelty. Let me mention, for instance, the novels by (All Quiet on the Western Front), by Arnold Zweig (Die Erziehung vor Verdun), by (A Farewell to Arms), by (Lucienne), Henri Barbusse (Le Feu), 's (Vie des martyrs and Les Croix de bois) by Roland Dorgeles. The First World War tested the ethical equilibrium of a great part of the world. Many times it appeared that a materialistic concept of life had come to dominate each individual soul. The writers engaged on the battlefield and the writers on the "home front" both felt that they fought not only for themselves, but also for the collective soul of the nation. The role of Czech writers was even more difficult since they had to fight on two fronts without betraying their real aims. On the home front, Czech poets had to make a pretence of supporting the "two- headed eagle", the symbol of Austro-Hungarian monarchy. In the trenches of the battlefield, Czech writers were paradoxically fighting Czech Literature and the First World War 963 for their own defeat. Deceit and passivity, so well exposed by Jaroslav Hasek in his Good Soldier Schweik, became the most powerful weapon of the Czech soldier dressed in the Austro-Hungarian uniform. In contrast to many other national literatures, the first literature pro- duced in independent was not affected by the influence of decadence, nihilism, or direct morality to the extent that it inter- rupted the existing character of Christian humanism, religion, or patriotic tradition. The sober, rather analytical Czech spirit submitted all foreign literary influences to a rigorous acid test. The War brought the old controversy between individualism and collectivism to a climax. In the immense "war machine", the human being became a smaller cog than ever. Armies consisting of millions of such cogs influenced the individual by their very massiveness. Under these circumstances, soldier-writers lost the sense of being separate in- dividuals. They felt that even birth, conflict, and death were events which happened collectively. The War thus helped in the formation of "herds"; in dehumanization and de-individualization. A mass psychosis captured the human soul and its influence was clearly evident for a long time after the First World War. Let us briefly examine some of the main themes, trends, and problems of the Czech war and first postwar literature. 1) The concept of a collective soul of the nation. 2) The love for the Czech country. 3) The active humanism of love of one's neighbour. (This humanism produced new heroes in Czech novels: doctors, nurses, priests, or just common soldiers as representatives of true "Kamaradsschaft") 4) The conflict between individualism and collectivism. 5) The new concept of Chris- tian morality. (Many Czech writers turned toward the supernatural for salvation. They turned to the Omnipresent God who sees everything; to the Merciful God who is always close to the wounded soldiers.) 6) The conflict between Slavonic humanism and messianism, on one hand, and German expansionism on the other. 7) Finally, the War witnessed the conflict between nationalistic and international ideas. (The main scene of this ideological fight was the Russian front, and a good docu- mentary of the struggle is the co-called "Czech legionary literature.")

1. THE FIRST WORLD WAR AND CZECH

Poetry, primarily lyric poetry, very often gave a better picture of the tragedy of war than did prose. The political nature of Josef Svatopluk 964 Jifi Skvor Machar's poetry and the in the poetry of Viktor Dyk, written during the most fateful hours of the war, are among the best testimonials to the close ties between Czech poets and the whole nation. The patriotic voice of Karel Toman's poems belongs to the purest melodies ever produced in Czech poetry. The war not only emphasized the political duty of Czech poets, but also assisted in warming the lyrical melody which sounded in the war-verses of Petr Kricka, Frana Sramek, and Bozena Benesova. Czech poetry of the First World War proved again that each historical period has its own poets, and that it is poetry which most accurately reflects the state of mind and the feelings of a whole nation. That War marked the end of the decadent, introspective poetry which had flour- ished at the turn of the nineteenth century. It also heralded the advent of new literary trends and forms, such as , , dadaism, poetism, and other foreign imports, the representative of which was especially Vitezslav Nezval. The War gave quite a shock to the prevailing social order. A new social class - the proletariat - emerged to claim its right in literature. The proletarian note of the poetry of S. K. Neumann, Petr Bezruc, Jiri Wolker, and sounded with a revolutionary spirit and stressed the realistic relation between a worker and his personal environment. The ordinary, simple man became the focal point of Czech war poetry. During the War, it was impossible "to dream, while sitting on the cloud of dreaming" (with Vitezslav Nezval), or to look for literary themes in an artificially constructed situation. The poets tried to soothe and heal the wounds; they tried to effect moral reforms which would preclude any future war. During the First World War, their analytic spirit made Czech poets aware of the fact that in the future the Czech nation would play an important part in the cultural exchange between the West and the East. The traditional preference for Western ideas could be explained also by Czech interest in new poetical forms. Nevertheless, new currents started intruding from the East. The Russian and the influence of Blok, Maiakovsky, Briusov, and Lunacharsky could be given most of the credit for the birth and growth of the new trend in Czech proletarian poetry. The lyric note in the proletarian poetry of Josef Hora and Jiri Wolker on one hand, and the proletarian cosmopolitanism and technical civiliza- tion depicted most clearly in the poetry of S. K. Neumann, on the other were direct products of the social changes caused by the War. Czech Literature and the First World War 965 From the pressure of war there also grew a new wave of humanism. This, however, became mostly the domain of poets of the older genera- tion. The poetry of Christian humanism dreamed about the ^'holiness of poverty", about a world in which there would be no more hunger, no more suffering, no more war. To this group of Czech poets belong the Catholic poets Jaroslav Durych and Jan Zahradnicek, and partly, also the mystic, Otakar Bfezina, as well as Bozena Benesova, and Jan Cep. A new resurgence of vitalism in poetry was the natural reaction of men whose lives had often been saved by hardly a hair's breadth. Many poets advocated full enjoyment of life. This tendency was com- plemented by a renewed cult of the "return to the nature", which re- sounded so vigorously in the poems of sensitive sensuality by Frana Sramek, and S. K. Neumann. The First World War enriched Czech poetry in many ways; it brought new themes, new scenery, new dynamics of imagination, new, subtle, lyrical half-tones. From a true picture of social reality to the most com- plicated feelings which are difficult to express in words, the gamut of Czech poetry rapidly broadened.

2. THE FIRST WORLD WAR AND CZECH PROSE

The First World War also exerted a remarkable influence on the devel- opment of Czech prose. It gave birth to a thematically new and ethical- ly significant "literature of legions", which showed clearly the contri- bution of the Czech and Slovak people to their nations' fight for libera- tion and political self-determination. The literary works of Rudolf Medek, Josef Kopta, Frantisek Langer, and F. V. Krejci are descrip- tions of an enforced war, a glorification of the just and victorious fight of Czech and Slovak soldiers. Czech patriotism and idealism clashed here with Marxist internationalism, the ideals of humanitarian democracy faced godless Communism and violence. A unique product of Czech war prose is Jaroslav Hasek's Good Sol- dier Schweik. This work is just the opposite of the "literature of legions" in its ethos and morality. The main works of Czech prose dating from the period of the First World War show the penetrating influence of war on the typical indi- vidual environment: urban, rural, proletarian. Many of the Czech war novels, as, for instance, Pole orna a vâlecnâ ("The Ploughed Fields and 966 Jifí Skvor the Battlefields") by Vladislav Vancura, the war-trilogy Zelezny kruh, ("The Iron Circle") by Karel Novy, and Cerná zemé (Black Earth") by Vojtéch Martinek, belong to the best of modern Czech literature. Under the impact of war, Czech writers focused their sights on particular strata of Czech society and on its structure. In contrast to the criteria which served the realists of the sixties and the later years of the nineteenth century, the judgment of postwar authors was much more realistic and critical. War revealed the deepest inner character of the Czech peasants - not only their sacrifices, but also their egotism and greed; the desire to become rich to the detriment of their fellow men. A critical look at the authors of the war period reveals all these vices and shows the founda- tion for the development of the modern Czech rural novel. The war offered the same opportunity to authors depicting urban life. They captured the disintegration of bourgeois classes and the forming of the industrial proletariat. In this respect, the writings of Marie Majerová and Marie Pujmanová are typical. The literary study of war by both these talented authors produced monumental social novels, as, for instance, Lidé na kfizovatce ("The Men at the Crossroad") by Marie Pujmanová and Siréna ("The Siren") by Marie Majerová. The portrayal of a particular social environment and the analysis of the soul of the urban dweller, which are also characteristic of Czech war novels, are found in the works of , Jaroslav Durych, J. V Rosúlek, Cestmír Jerábek, Edmond Konrád, and several other authors. The First World War thus contributed to a great diversification in theme and form. Ivan Olbracht showed intensified interest in the fate of disinherited human society in his novel, O zlych samotáfích ("About Bad Misanthropes"); the war evoked interest in the social and family life of women, as, for example, in Advent, by Jarmila Glazarová, or in Üder ("The Blow"), by Bozena Benesová. Václav Rezác was concerned with the fate of the young Czech generation growing up during the war in his novel Vétrná setba ("Sowing in the Wind"). Jaromir John's memories of war are captured in a collection of short stories called Vecery na slamniku, ("Evenings on a Palliasse"). Catholic writers like Jaroslav Durych and Jakub Demi were inspired by war to seek deeply for solutions to metaphysical problems. The rural milieu which played such an important role, especially in the war novels of Karel Novy and Vladislav Vancura, attracted the attention of adherents of ruralism such as Josef Knap, Frantisek Krelina, Jan Carek, J. V. Sedlák, Václav Prokúpek, and others. The first echo of this literary Czech Literature and the First World War 967 movement was heard in A. C. Nor's , Burkental. The ruralists emphasized the traditional elements and created a counterweight to the conventional urban literature. The enormous upheaval of the war years almost completely sup- pressed a tendency toward a new type of romanticism and classicism. Historicism, as represented by Alois Jirasek, whose literary work was a source of national faith and belief in a national resurrection, was another trend of the postwar novel. One of the most characteristic features of the early postwar Czech novels was the decline of pathetic heroism. Every pose was radically rejected and condemned. The heroism shown by the soldiers on the battlefield was more convincing than any type of artificial literary pathos. Generally speaking, the Czech war novel was broader in scope; it de- scribed, not only the new social problems and the growing complexity of the whole social development, but also the relations and conflicts be- tween those in different spheres of life and classes, and the characteristic problems of the new generation. Refined and daring analysis and poetic imagination started to throw light into the dark corners of human life, and one can read in war prose of issues like loss of memory, "split personality", and other psychological problems.

3. THE FIRST WORLD WAR AND CZECH DRAMA

Relatively speaking, the First World War produced a poor harvest in Czech drama. Except for Frantisek Langer's Jizdni hlidka ("The Mounted Patrol") and some works by Stanislav Lom, Jaroslav Hilbert, Viktor Dyk, Jin Mahen, and Otokar Fischer, Czech drama had to await the pragmatic generation of Karel Capek and its positive achievements. Unfavourable political circumstances long prevented Czech drama from reaching the heart of the nation, since it was almost impossible to produce the plays. Austro-Hungarian censorship was very much aware of the potential political impact of drama on the Czech people. With a few exceptions, like Hilbert's Job and a few plays by Josef Kopta, Rudolf Medek, and Zdenek Stepanek, the War influenced Czech drama very little as far as the thematic point of view was concerned. Nevertheless, the tension and environment of war created an emotional setting for a great many dramas. In some of them, the historical theme was used only as a background against which problems of current 968 Jiri Skvor national importance were set. On the other hand, what Czech drama lacked in abundance or dramatic vigour, it gained in lofty ethical views.

4. THE FIRST WORLD WAR AND LITERARY FORM

Many new literary forms were developed immediately after the War. The War evoked these literary methods and forms by changing the current form of the individualistic novel and poetry. The War itself was an enor- mous collective act, sweeping away individualism, subjectivism, and deca- dence. It evoked multivocal social, class, and collective symphonies. The loosening of social and state barriers was followed by the invasion of a "new life". Man became part of higher national and international units, and this new trend left its imprint on literature. In the nineteenth century, the bourgeois type of individualistic novel reached its peak. The First World War caused the awakening of a new social class, the proletariat. Another result of the War was an "epidemic" of literary pluralism; the switching of literary themes, scenes, and time designed for the pur- pose of capturing as much of life as possible. World literature, imme- diately after the War, was flooded with such "pluralistic" novels, as, for example, works by Sinclair Lewis, John Dos Passos, Lion Feucht- wanger, and others. The War also brought forth a new wave of literary expressionism. To the expressionists, the entire world was in a chaotic state which was growing worse every day. The human soul, shattered to its very foun- dations, had transformed the world into a hectic vision which expressed horror on one hand and the desire for redemption on the other. In a formal sense, expressionism was the bridge to a number of other literary trends. Some of them were occasionally found in Czech literature before the First World War. The First World War created the opportunity for them to broaden and develop. This was especially true of surrealism, dadaism, cubism, and some other trends which never actually became deeply rooted in Czech literature. The works of Gide, Proust, Joyce, and Breton to mention a few of their main representatives, had a strong influence primarily on Czech poets like Nezval, Biebl, Halas, and Holan and on the early poems of Seifert. Their influence on Czech prose, how- ever, was comparatively weak. A more important influence was the pragmatism of scholars like William James. Pragmatism supplied Czech authors with material Czech Literature and the First World War 969 for the psychological analysis of the lives of war heroes. Its favorite subjects were the reconstruction of man's life, and the different versions of "truth" which pragmatism brought to this reconstruction. Similarly, the subjects and images of symbolist poetry suggested a great deal. was the revival of an apparently exhausted poetic vocabulary. The associative quality of symbolism was occasionally called "impressionism", a word used with a meaning analogous to its mean- ing in the music of the same period. The First World War somewhat delayed the impact of foreign in- fluence on Czech literature, as far as literary forms were concerned. Immediately after the War, the "Manifesto of Czech Poetism" appeared in . Poetry became a kind of imaginative game in which there appeared chain associations - often illogical and paradoxical - and the association of ideas, images, and words. There was a new emphasis on the lyrical, subjective, and spiritual elements of poetry, with a disposition to view its imaginative processes as existing, not merely to give pleasure, but for the pursuit of truth by means of intuition. There was a corresponding disposition to discard the formal rules of poetic art which had been taught since the period of romanticism, and to exalt in their stead an individual freedom and novelty of literary form. Extraordinary metrical variety, in contrast with the regularity and conservatism of the neoclassical schools, was also characteristic of the Czech poetry of the first postwar period.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A. Sources Analyzed

BeneSovä, B., Oder (Praha, 1926); Podzemni plameny (Praha, 1929); Tragickd duha (Praha, 1933); Bäsne (Praha, 1938). Bezruö, P., Slezské pisné (Praha, vydäni r.1937). Biebl, K., Cesta k lidem (Praha, 1923); Verny Mas (Praha, 1924). Cep, J., Letnice (Praha, 1932). Demi, J., Verse ceské (Praha, 1938). Durych, J., Jarmark zivota (Praha, 1916); Na horach (Praha, 1918). Dyk, V., Lehké a tèzké kroky (Praha, 1915); Okno (Praha, 1921); Revolucni trilogie (Praha, 1921); Bàstie (Praha, 1931). Fischer, 0., Otroci (Praha, 1925). Halas, F., Sepie (Praha, 1927); Kohout plaSi smrt (Praha, 1930). HaSek, J., Osudy dobrého vojàka Svejka za svétové vàlky (Praha, 1920-23). Hilbert, J., Druhy bfeh (Praha, 1924); Job (Praha, 1928). Hora, J., Strom v kvètu (Praha, 1920); Srdce a vfava svèta (Praha, 1922); Bour- livé jaro (Praha, 1923). John, J., Vecery na slamniku (Praha, 1920). 970 Jiñ Skvor

Kopta, J., Treti rota (Praha, 1924). Krejci, F. V., Veliké dobrodruzstvi (Praha, 1924); Nase osvobozeni (Praha, 1919). Kriòka, P., Sipkovy ker (Brno, 1916); Büy stit (Brno, 1919); Hoch s lukem Praha, 1924). Langer, F., Zelezny vlk (Praha, 1920); Jizdni hlidka (Praha, 1935). Lom, St., Vudce (Praha, 1916). Machar, J. S., Tristium Praga (Praha, 1926); Na krizovatkach (Praha, 1927). Majerovä, M., Sirèna {Praha, 1935). Martinek, V., Cerna zeme (Moravskä Ostrava, 1926). Medek, R., Prvni bàsné (Praha, 1927); Veliké dny (Praha, 1923); Ostrov v boufi (Praha, 1925); Mohutny sen (Praha, 1926). Neumann, S. K„ Nove zpévy (Praha, 1918); 1914-1918 (Praha, 1927). Nezval, V., Manifesty poetismu (Praha, 1928); Moderni bàsnické smèry (Praha, 1937). Nor, A. C., Bürkental (Praha, 1925). Novy, K., Zelezny kruh (Praha, 1927-1932). Olbracht, J., O zlych samotafich (Praha, 1939). Pujmanovä, M., Lidé na kfizovatce (Praha, 1937). ftezac, V., Vétrnd setba (Praha, 1935). Seifert, J., Mèsto v slzàch (Praha, 1921); Bàsnè (Praha, 1929). Srämek, F., ¿asnouci vojak (Praha, 1924); Bàsnè (Praha, 1926). Saida, F. X., Zàstupové (Praha, 1921). Toman, K„ Mèsice (Praha, 1918); Bàsnè (Praha, 1918). Vanöura, VI., Pole ornà a vàlecnà (Praha, 1925). Wolker, J., Tèzkà hodina (Praha, 1922). Zahradnicek, J., Pokuseni smrti (Praha, 1930); Nàvrat (Brno, 1931).

B. Sources Consulted

Breton, J. A., La vie d'un artiste (, 1890). Briusov, V., Proletàfskà poesie (Praha, 1921). Bruckner, F., Zlocinci (Praha, 1931). Burgum, E. B., The New Criticism (New York, 1941). Eliot, T. S., The Waste Land (New York, 1932); The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism (London, 1933). Feuchtwanger, L., Jitd Süss (, 1925); Erfolg (Berlin, 1930). Gide, A., The Counterfeiters (Boston, 1928). Goetz, F., Tvár století (Praha, 1930). Greene, T. M., The Arts and the Art of Criticism (Princeton, 1947). Hemingway, E. M., A Farewell to Arms (New York, 1929). Hugh, A., The Ethical Theory of Hegel (Oxford, 1921). Joyce, J., Ulysses (Paris, 1922); A Portrait of the Artist (Zurich, 1916). Lewis, S., The Work of Art (New York, 1934). Lewishohn, L., A Modern Book of Criticism (New York, 1919). Lunacharsky, A., Literatura a revoluce (Praha, 1921). Maiakovsky, V., Vybor z d'ila ve dvou svazcich (Praha, 1953). Proust, M., Coté de Guermantes (Paris, 1922). Remarque, R. M., All Quiet on the Western Front (New York, 1932). Robert, P., The Sources of the Faust Tradition (New York, 1934). Rolland, R., Petr a Lucie (Montreal, 1952). Czech Literature and the First World War 971

Spengler, O., Untergang des Abendlandes (Munich, 1924). Teige, K., Umeni sovetskeho Ruska (Praha, 1924). Weigand, H. J., The Modern Ibsen (New York, 1925). Wellek, R., and Warren, Austin, Theory of Literature (New York, 1954). Wolf, A., The Philosophy of Nietzsche (Boston, 1913). Zweig, A., Die Erziehung vor Verdun (Munich, 1926).