This article deals with the representation of literary culture in the Bohemian lands in late 18th and early 19th century travelogues as an influential literary genre of the late Enlightenment period. Against the background of their authors’ (mostly North and Central German travellers’) views on the Habsburg monarchy, the Bohemian lands and Prague in particular, as well as their education and art, the article seeks to analyse the variety of perspectives and the clash of external and domestic perspectives, as well as their description strategies. It draws attention both to the ideologisation and interconnection of the travelogue discourse and to the reactions of domestic authors to the travellers’ generalizing criticisms and their forms. To summarize, the article argues that the traditional classification of travelogues as predominantly pro- or anti-Slavic does not exactly hit the mark in this period, for travelogues do reflect the discussion on Czech literary culture in the Bohemian lands in statu(re-)nascendi in the context of local history and the enlightenment of the common folk., Dalibor Dobiáš., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
The desire to explore distant lands and exotic civilisations is a
defining attribute of one of our most famous travellers, Enrique Stanko Vráz (b. 1860 - d. 1932). Besides being a traveller, he was also a photographer, writer and collector. We learn most about his journeys from his books, in which his travel experiences were transmuted into literature, and from the countless photographs taken while staying in exotic countries. Vráz understood
photography to be the perfect means of documenting facts and events; he always preferred an informative to an emotional style. His captions written on glass negatives are of exceptional value.
Vráz would always try to describe and, more importantly, understand
the culture of any country he visited. He himself was a very
charismatic personality with an ability to make friends easily - which is why he was able to find out things that for other travellers and explorers would remain secret. His approach to people from other cultures was open-minded and friendly, but also carried a dose of healthy scepticism.