Page 95 - Vinkler, Jonatan, Ana Beguš and Marcello Potocco. Eds. 2019. Ideology in the 20th Century: Studies of literary and social discourses and practices. Koper: University of Primorska Press
P. 95
Searching for the Image
of the Village in the Swirl
of 20th Century Ideological
Conflicts
Aleš Kozár
The village and rural motifs have been the core of literary texts since a
long time, and each period has interpreted them in its way. This is espe-
cially true of the 19th century when authors searched in the village motifs
for traces of the ideal character of the nation or a form of the Biedermeier
pastoral idyll, at times even assuming features of the sacral space (Macura
2002, 50), and later for the disturbing echoes of the new age with signs of
the disintegration of the traditional value system of family life and wid-
er community (Karel Václav Rais (1859–1926), Tereza Nováková (1853–
1907), Alois (1861–1925) and Vilém Mrštík (1863–1912), Ivan Cankar
(1876–1918)). Later still, in the Czech literature one can find attempts to
restore this system, for example, those related to Catholic faith (Jindřich
Šimon Baar (1869–1925), Jan Čep (1902–1974), Josef Knap (1900–1973),
František Křelina (1903–1976)) or land (ruralists). It is also possible to
find attempts to view the countryside as an exotic landscape (Ivan Ol-
bracht (1882–1952) and his depiction of Carpathian Ruthenia in Golet v
údolí (1937) or Nikola Šuhaj Loupežník (1933)) even with its archaic and
patriarchal nature. It is important to note that all all of the above texts
were mostly ties or clashes between an individual or community and cul-
tural or national ideas.
However, after the political upheavals in 1948, the rural theme served
to express ideological political schematization in the issues of rural so-
cialization, the formation of agricultural cooperatives following the pat-
tern of Soviet kolkhozes, etc., both in literature (Dvě jara (1952) and then
the extensive two-part novel Venkovan (1955, 1958, revised in 1974) by
Bohumil Říha (1907–1987) and others), and in the other forms of art
of the Village in the Swirl
of 20th Century Ideological
Conflicts
Aleš Kozár
The village and rural motifs have been the core of literary texts since a
long time, and each period has interpreted them in its way. This is espe-
cially true of the 19th century when authors searched in the village motifs
for traces of the ideal character of the nation or a form of the Biedermeier
pastoral idyll, at times even assuming features of the sacral space (Macura
2002, 50), and later for the disturbing echoes of the new age with signs of
the disintegration of the traditional value system of family life and wid-
er community (Karel Václav Rais (1859–1926), Tereza Nováková (1853–
1907), Alois (1861–1925) and Vilém Mrštík (1863–1912), Ivan Cankar
(1876–1918)). Later still, in the Czech literature one can find attempts to
restore this system, for example, those related to Catholic faith (Jindřich
Šimon Baar (1869–1925), Jan Čep (1902–1974), Josef Knap (1900–1973),
František Křelina (1903–1976)) or land (ruralists). It is also possible to
find attempts to view the countryside as an exotic landscape (Ivan Ol-
bracht (1882–1952) and his depiction of Carpathian Ruthenia in Golet v
údolí (1937) or Nikola Šuhaj Loupežník (1933)) even with its archaic and
patriarchal nature. It is important to note that all all of the above texts
were mostly ties or clashes between an individual or community and cul-
tural or national ideas.
However, after the political upheavals in 1948, the rural theme served
to express ideological political schematization in the issues of rural so-
cialization, the formation of agricultural cooperatives following the pat-
tern of Soviet kolkhozes, etc., both in literature (Dvě jara (1952) and then
the extensive two-part novel Venkovan (1955, 1958, revised in 1974) by
Bohumil Říha (1907–1987) and others), and in the other forms of art
