Impulses and Shapes of Expressionism

The thesis starts with an attempt at defining the notion of "expressionism" in the context of modemism and avant-garde, followed by a general outline of the expressionist art, as it manifested itself in different art forms, both in the wider European context and in the special case of the Czech art scene. Here the stress is laid on the characterisation of new means of expression that Expressionism as a new and arising modem or avant-garde art movement brings out. At the end of the first part basic facts about Expressionism in the Czech literature are given, which also serve as introductory notes for the subsequent chapters dealing with particular writers. First part thus constitutes a theoretical basis and guidelines for the themes of the second part. The two chapters of the second part deal with Czech writers Josef Čapek and Jakub Deml and their pieces usually associated with (unlike the rest of their works) Expressionism; it is an attempt to present the selected literary texts as types or representatives of how expressionism manifested itself in the Czech prose. The chapter Josef Čapek's Lelio is a synopsis of scholarly retlections on Le- lio; various approaches to determine which movement the text belongs or could belong to are presented and compared. Of Jakub Deml's writings, Hrad smrti and..