The aim of this paper is to describe 18th century "language criticism" (Sprachkritik) in the Bohemian Lands and underline its role within the process of establishing of the literary criticism. In the Habsburg monarchy, the language criticism can be traced back to the late 1740s; its origins are linked to the southern German sense of cultural (and thus linguistic), political and economical backwardness and to the efforts to catch up with the mostly protestant countries of Central and Northern Germany. The authors of this article examine not only reflections of used language and style in particular works, but also the position, prestige and function of various languages (German, Latin, Czech) themselves. The trends in language criticism and - in the narrower sense - language cultivation are examined with the use of both expert contributions to learned discussions and publicistic articles in critical journals aiming at a larger audience. In the whole process, several moments that meant a significant impulse for language criticism can be observed. The first one would be the appointment of Karl Heinrich Seibt as university professor of Schöne Wissenschaften (belles lettres), rhetoric, historia litteraria and ethics in 1763, followed by the efforts to establish a learned society, Josephine reforms and foundation of a chair of Czech language and literature at Prague university in 1791. Finally, the tightening of censorship from the second half of 1790s on had a considerable influence on criticism; its subject started to change and it began to focus on a different group of intended readers: while it used to try to educate potential future authors, afterwards it concentrated more and more on educating of the "common reader" and engaging him into critical reflections on belles lettres., Václav Petrbok a Ondřej Podavka., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
Starting with the traditional dichotomy of two views of the relation between criticism and art - "criticism as art" and "criticism based on detachment" - this study seeks to show both standpoints to be part of a single complex of issues and tensions associated with the functional differentiation within literary communication at the turn of 18th and 19th century. This approach is based on Niklas Luhmann’s system theory, applied (with something of a twist) by Siegfried Schmidt to literature. After introducing the problem of functional differentiation within the literary system in Bohemia, the study presents many different historical conceptions of the relation of art and criticism observable in discussions at the turn of 18th and 19th century in Bohemia. I then focus on the notion of "genius" in these discussions, which played an important role in the development of the concept of "criticism as art". In the following three parts, the study investigates the differentiation of critical praxis: the genesis of "artistic criticism" characterized by hermeneutics and its form-reflecting approach, and the ongoing usage of artistic genres in criticism. The last part focuses on a specific critical genre of the period, the satirical vision, and its transformation as a consequence of the differentiation of the literary system., Václav Smyčka., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy