Josef Svatopluk Machar

Josef Svatopluk Machar (* February 29, 1864 in Kolin, † March 17, 1942 in Prague), also known under the pseudonym Dr. Čeněk Folklore ( also Antonín Rousek Leo Leonhard and others), was a Czech poet, prose writer, satirist, publicist, politician and author of the manifesto Česká moderna and representatives of critical realism, Freemasons.

Life

Machar, the son of a miller, studied at the Gymnasium in Prague, then graduated from the military school year 1891 and took a job as a clerk in a bank in Vienna, where he wrote at the same time for various magazines. Here he met TG Masaryk and was an important representative of the Realist Party. Even before the First World War, he appeared as an opponent of hollow patriotism. After 1918, he returned at the request of Masaryk in Czechoslovakia and was appointed Inspector General of the Czechoslovak army. He put this feature in 1924 for openly transmitted disagreements with Masaryk down and moved into the camp of the radical right.

Works

In his works he has openly deals with the civil society. He criticized their indifference, hypocrisy and false patriotism. His criticism also met with the church and the Young Czechs. The facts he looked realistic, rugged, and analytically provocative eye. He wrote subjective and political poetry and sealed Epik mixed with satire, irony and sarcasm. He thus continuing the literary line of Karel Havlicek Borovský and Jan Neruda. He was seen in part as a problematic author with fascist views. Judaism Machar defined not as a confession, but as a unit into ethnic categories, but the ( frequently encountered ) Jewish characters are drawn positive in his work; he turned in the book Satiricon and the essay amnesty against anti-Semitism.

In the struggles between the older and younger literary generation, he and other young writers the loose association Česká moderna and this, wrote a corresponding manifest. Besides František Xaver Salda, Otokar Brezina and Vilém Mrštík it was just Machar, who exercised a great influence on Czech literature at the beginning of the 20th century with its purely realistic poetry. As an example, he served as the great poet Stanislav Kostka Neumann.

Poetry

Confiteor (1887, "I confess " ), Volume 1 to 3, a commitment to a disappointment in love, at the same time social -oriented poetry, which has been criticized as being too pessimistic
Four Sonnets Books: Letní sonety, Podzimní sonety, Zimni sonety, Jarní sonety (1891-1893, Summer Sonnets, Autumn sonnets, sonnets Winter, Spring sonnets ), disappointment of modern civilization, the poet criticizes the society, false morality, the bourgeoisie, politicians, etc.
Bozi bojovníci (1896, about the " Soldiers of God " as they called themselves Hussites ), a satire on the dispute over the authenticity of the Green Berger handwriting and Queen Hofer handwriting, directed against the so-called party of the Young Czechs
Tristium Vindobona (1893, " laments from Vienna ", the Latin title is based on Ovid's Tristia on ), one of the best works of Machar, where he deals critically with patriotism and the Czech national feeling
Zde by Mely Kvest růže (1894, " You should bloom roses " ), some women's lives, critical examination of the status of women in society

Novel

Magdalena

Prose

Řím
Crime
V poledne
Svědomím věků
Konfese literáta ( personal memories )

Political literature

Pět Roku v kasárnách (1927 )
Oni a já (1927 )
Zapomínaní a zapomenutí (1929 )
Při sklence vína (1929 )
Manifesto České moderny (1895 )

German -language publications

Barbarians, Vienna 1919
The poison from Judea, Vienna 1919
The galleys of the Gymnasium, Vienna 1919
In the beam of the Hellenic sun, Vienna 1919
Crime, Vienna 1919
Rome, Prague 1908, Vienna 1920, reprint: Badenweiler 2010, ISBN 978-3-940523-05-1
Rudolfiner, Vienna 1920
Here roses should blossom ..., Potsdam 1923
The conscience of the times, Vienna

Biography

Fedor Soldan: Josef Svatopluk Machar, Prague 1974