Jiří Rak
Hoaxes in 19th century Czech culture
This paper charts the functions of hoaxes in the emerging Czech national ideology during the first half of the 19th century. Their aim was both to fill in blank spaces in national history and culture and to create a fictitious image of a world that reflected patriotic notions. Hence the creation of the forged manuscripts (Dvůr Králové and Zelená Hora), which were intended to provide ‘proof’ of the Slavonic settlement of the land long ago and the civilizational and cultural maturity involved. Some references in period sources indicate that at least a section of the patriotic public guessed this was a mystification similar to the ‘echoes’ of Czech and Slavonic folk poetry. Another problem was the incomplete social structure of the emerging modern Czech nation, so Czech poetesses and patriotically active aristocrats were simply invented. The image at the time of the rural environment was also something of an obfuscation, losing sight of the hard agricultural labour, as the countryside turned into some kind of outdoor museum full of picturesque costumes and melodious Czech songs. The striking contrast between the reality and the patriotic fiction was resolved by distinguishing between the ‘riffraff’ and the ‘people’. Actual folk writing, which often contained eroticisms and vulgarisms, was thus described as vulgar ditties sung by the rabble, while the proud title ‘folk song’ was borne by works that had been suitably amended by patriotic poets. Another obfuscation of sorts was the historical novel that made itself out to be a faithful depiction of the past.
key words: mystification – National Revival – Czech literature
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