This blog post explores the literary legacy and significance of Josef Kajetan Tyl, a central figure in Czech Romantic literature.
Romanticism
In the 18th century, the major European nations were dominated by the Enlightenment, a movement that inherited the classicism established in France in the 17th century, while at the same time making reason the sole means of perception. Classicism was an aristocratic culture that set strict rules based on universal and absolute notions of beauty, favoring simplicity over complexity, the static over the dynamic, the urban over the rural, the elegant over the brazen, and the uniform over the unconventional. By the mid-18th century, however, the relaxation of absolute monarchies and the rise of the bourgeoisie sparked a desire to see people as they were, and the Enlightenment’s revelation of the irrationality of reason led to a movement to find the truth of humanity in sensory phenomena. The French Revolution of 1789 occurred against this backdrop and left people disillusioned.
The crowning achievement of the Enlightenment was the overthrow of irrational political systems through reason, but the ugly side of humanity revealed by the revolution made people despair. They were bewildered by the rapidly changing circumstances around them, and the collapse of all principles led them to distrust everything. Attempting to build a culture of their own on top of this mental ruin is the essence of the Romantic spirit, and as a result, the affirmation of the self and its retreat into itself began. The brothers A.W. Schlegel and W. Schlegel founded the Athenaeum in Jena, Germany, in 1798, and in England, Wordsworth and S.T. Coleridge became the prototypes of romanticism in their respective countries when they published the Lyrical Folk Songs, a collection of songs about contemplating nature and spiritual unity with the universe through imagination.
The Czech Republic at the time (National Revival)
From the 15th to the end of the 18th century, Czech literature existed for religious purposes and did not develop in a purely literary sense as it did in Western Europe, such as France, England, and Germany. From the end of the 18th century, nationalist ideas emerged and, like Korea during the Japanese occupation, patriotism, national self-awareness, and political and linguistic self-awareness attracted the attention of writers. This current of Romantic awareness led to an effort to explore and poetically enrich the national past, a desire to penetrate into the essence of the national soul, and an attempt to fuse intimate contact with national characteristics into new creative principles. Another intellectual source of Romanticism was the patriotic awareness of Pan-Slavism.
This awareness eventually developed into literary and linguistic interdependence and cultural Pan-Slavism, and later into political principles. In particular, these ideas gave Czechs courage and support and served as a check on their one-sided dependence on foreign cultures, especially Germany. The deliberate and organized movement for national self-awareness and cultural, economic, and political independence penetrated deeply from the intelligentsia to the masses. Czech literature, which had required academia, the press, and even the creation of a literary language, was now broadening its scope to include activism for the national cause.
The life of Josef Kajetan Tyl
Josef Kajetan Tyl’s mother, the daughter of an entrepreneur living in the suburbs of Prague, had a secret marriage to an oboist in the military band and gave birth to Josef Kajetan Tyl on April 4, 1808. His birth and his parents’ marriage were apparently not blessed, as his grandmother did not contact him until a secondary school teacher recognized Tyl’s genius. Enrolled in the philosophy department of Karel University, Tyl was more active in theater than in his studies, and in 1829 he left Prague to become a member of a German traveling troupe, traveling the country for about three years.
Returning to Prague in 1832, he joined the German military treasury and began his literary career by translating foreign plays into Czech. He then moved to the Estates Theater, where he continued his work as an actor, director, and organizer. It is unclear whether Tyl was acquainted with Paláčky, but it is likely that he shared his ideas about Austro-Slavism. Austro-Slavism was a position that advocated learning from and building up Austria and gradually expanding its influence within the empire, including Czech autonomy. In 1848, the year of the revolution, he became politically active and became a member of the Austrian parliament in Vienna, but he stopped doing so after the restrictions on the Estates Theater and itinerant troupes and the increasing interference in Czech independence activities.
He formed a unique family. Tyl married Magdalena, a fellow traveling troupe member, but she was only interested in his financial affairs and was unfortunately infertile. For this reason, Tyl remarried her sister-in-law, the actress Anna, who took an interest in his literary activities, and they had seven children before she died in poverty on July 11, 1856, in Pilsen at the age of 48.
Josef Kajetan Tyl’s work in action
As a Romantic playwright, Josef Kajetan Tyl organized “patriotic balls and receptions,” knowing that Czechs loved Czech-language plays during the period of Austrian domination and German-speaking. The first event in February 1840 was a huge success, and it was significant that the nobility and middle class were able to communicate in Czech at these gatherings. Although these events provided the Germans with a pretext to attack, the use of the Czech language unexpectedly increased.
Tyl was prolific as a playwright. He used the lives of Prague’s citizens as the subject of his plays, and his most famous play, The May Dance is Not a Time for Quarrels (Fidlovačka aneb Žádný hněv a žádná rvačka, 1834), was based on the May festival of the Prague cobblers. The song “Where is My Fatherland?” (Kde domov můj?) became the national anthem after Czechoslovakia’s independence (October 28, 1918), which marked the completion of the Czech national revival. He published The Shepherd’s Song (1835), in which a character with a strong personality has his ego disrupted by the chaos of his surroundings. In other works, such as The Arsonist’s Daughter (Paličova dcera, 1846) and The Prodigal of Prague (Pražský flamender, 1846), he realistically portrayed the bourgeoisie. Czech popular drama centered on Tyl was very popular among Czechs, and later led to the establishment of the National Theater (Národní divadlo), a symbol of Czech nationalism.
In his short story masterpiece, The Conflicted Man (1844), he advocated for a constitutional monarchy, arguing that theater and literature should reflect the nationalist spirit. He also wrote patriotic articles for the magazines The Flower (Květy, 1833-1845) and The Messenger from Prague (Posel z Prahy, 1846-1848), which served to instill a sense of national pride in Czech writers.
