Vznik Československa a snaha o demokratizáciu pomerov na území bývalého Rakúsko – Uhorska je výborným historickým príkladom, ktorý môže pomôcť pochopiť postmodernú krízu legitimity demokratických inštitúcií spôsobenú predovšetkým oslabením vzťahu k vlastnému politickému národu, čo vedie k rozbitiu tézy o jednotnosti a homogenite vôle neempirického subjektu. Československý národ bol pokusom o vytvorenie jednotného štátotvorného politického národa spojením dvoch národností do jedného etnického celku. Teoretická rovnocennosť českej a slovenskej národnosti obsiahnutá v politickom programe čechoslovakizmu nebola prevedená aj do štruktúry vrcholných orgánov československého štátu. Požiadavkám na reprezentáciu, ktoré sa v zastupiteľskej demokracii viažu na dve základné východiská, ktorými sú sloboda jednotlivca prejavujúca sa na tvorbe štátnej vôle a jednota a homogenita reprezentovaného celku, nevyhovel ani Národný výbor ani Národné zhromaždenie.Obidva vrcholné zastupiteľské orgány spĺňali len formálne požiadavky legitimity demokratických inštitúcií. Korene oslabenia vzťahu k československému
národu zo strany Slovákov a ich autonomistických prejavov v prvej polovici 20. storočia môžeme hľadať práve v nedodržaní základných princípov demokratického usporiadania Československa and The establishment of Czechoslovakia and the aspiration to the democratization of the situation in the former Austria – Hungary is an excellent historical example which may help us to understand the postmodern crisis of legitimacy of democratic institutions, caused mainly by the weakening of the relation of individuals to their political nation. This can lead us to the abondonement of the thesis of uniform and homogeneous will of the nonempirical entity (political nation). Czechoslovakian nation was an experiment of creating a single state-forming nation’s into one ethnic group
through political union of two nationalities. The theoretical equivalence of the Czech and Slovak nationality contained in the political agenda of Czechoslovakism hasn’t been transferred into to the structure of the top representative authorities of the Czechoslovak state. Requirements for representation, which are, in representative democracy, related to the two basic assumptions – freedom of the individual and homogeneity of the represented entity, were not met by the newly formed bodies – Národný výbor or Národné zhromaždenie.Both representative organs met only formal requirements for legitimate representation by democratic institutions. This is where we can find the roots for the weakening of the relation of individual Slovaks to the Czechoslovak nation; it is precisely the breach of the fundamental principles, democratic representation in former Czechoslovakia.
Studie se zabývá českými překlady řeckého a latinského hexametru a pentametru, v nichž byl jako překladový verš použit český alexandrín, tj. šestistopý jamb s cézurou uprostřed. Autor metodologicky navazuje na studii Miroslava Červenky Český alexandrín, jejíž výsledky užívá pro srovnání. Rozbor materiálu (J. Jungmann, I. Bureš, J. Nováková, J. Žáček, M. Machovec) ukazuje, jak se rytmus verše proměňuje v závislosti na době a/nebo autorovi, a připomíná možnosti, jak toho využít v překladatelské praxi. Největší pozornost byla věnována Julii Novákové a jejímu překladu Músáiova epyllia Héró a Leandros: ve shodě s vlastním záměrem se překladatelce podařilo vystižením hlavních rysů Máchova alexandrínu vyvolat konotace máchovské a zcela potlačit konotace na francouzskou kulturu či českou dekadenci, které český alexandrín doprovázejí téměř automaticky. and The article considers Czech translations of Greek and Latin hexameter and pentameter, in which the Czech alexandrine was used as the verse for translation, that is, iambic hexameter with a caesura in the middle. An analysis of material by Josef Jungmann, Ivan Bureš, Julie Nováková, Jiří Žáček, Milan Machovec shows how the rhythm of the verse changes depending on the times or the author or both. The analysis suggests possible ways to use this in the actual practice of translation. The article pays particular attention to Nováková and her translation of Musaeus’ epyllion, Hero and Leander: in keeping with her own intentions, Nováková has, by capturing the principal features of Mácha’s alexandrine, managed to evoke Mácha -like connotations in her translation, while completely suppressing connotations of French culture or Czech Decadence, which almost automatically accompany the Czech alexandrine.
This article considers the effects of atheism, an intellectual and political movement denying the existence of God (the Supernatural) and casting doubt on the point of institutions connected with God in twentieth-century Bohemia and Moravia. The author distinguishes between atheist, agnostic, and “non-believer,” and, referring to contemporary sociological research into religiousness in Czech society, argues that it would be wrong to consider the mass turning away from traditional confessions to be evidence of its prevailing atheism or a consequence of forty years of Communist dictatorship. The article considers the topic in the broader historical context, and points to the anticlerical (essentially anti-Roman Catholic) tradition in modern Czech history, which is rooted in the National Revival and was intensified in connection with the anti-Habsburg struggle leading to the creation of the Czechoslovak Republic. The Communist regime, seeking, after it took power in February 1948, to suppress the Church and religion, thus found fertile ground. The beginning of atheism in the Czech milieu, as elsewhere in Europe, is linked to the development of the Freethinkers movement. Within this movement (the Czech section, Volná myšlenka, was founded in 1904), a positivist current predominated at first. From the early 1920s, however, its views increasingly clashed with the Marxist-influenced stream. That stream originated in Marx’s interpretation of religion as a false, alienated consciousness, serving the interests of reactionary social forces and an outdated “scientific view of the world”. Atheism in the Marxist conception was thus understood not only as a noetic perspective, but also as a set of principles forming part of Communist, or Socialist, ethics. The author argues that, after taking power, the Communist regime commenced its struggle against the Churches (particularly the Roman Catholic) with the help of propaganda that was political rather than atheist, owing both to tactical considerations (the considerable religiousness of the rural population) and to the implicit conviction of Communist functionaries that religion would die out together the people and institutions that represented it. In the 1950s, “scientific atheism” had not yet emerged from Marxist-Leninist doctrine as an independent discipline, and was therefore not a special subject of the school curriculum or scholarly debate. It emerged slowly, in about the 1960s, but by then, with the overall liberalization of society, relations between the Churches and State had improved, and space for religious and ideas had begun to appear. In the last part of the article, the author describes the institutionalization of “scientific atheism” as part of the strategy of “Normalization”, reflected for example in the founding the Institute of Scientific Atheism at the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, Brno, 1972. The mission of this institute was not merely the theoretical refutation of religion and the promotion of a “scientific view of the world” in research into the orientation of the population in this respect, but also the elaboration of assessments for publications with regard to their “ideological incorruptibility” and assessments of the activity of the clergy in deciding to revoke the requirement of State consent for those who wished to work as members of the clergy.