The Metamorphoses of Prague School Structural Poetics

Ondřej Sládek

In this book the author concentrates on tracing and analysing the metamorphoses of Czech literary structuralism in the course of the 20th century. Attention is focused primarily on the works and approaches of those Czech literary theoreticians and historians who went into exile. The author has attempted (1) to present several key sources and formative relations of Czech structuralism (e.g. to Saussure’s linguistics, to Russian formalism and the like), (2) to outline the historical development of Czech structuralism in exile, and (3) to provide a brief characterisation of the main changes undergone by the structural poetics of the Prague School in exile – in the context of the development of Western literary theory and criticism, and more specifically, the history of structuralism and post-structuralism. The changing structuralist point of departure is demonstrated through a number of selected approaches, analysing in particular detail the theoretical proposals of Mojmír Grygar, Květoslav Chvatík, and Lubomír Doležel. In researching this subject, the author applies the perspective of the theoretician and historian of the theory of literature.