This study offers a revised classification of the movements involved in Teréza Nováková’s work, with specific reference to the novel Děti čistého živého (Children of Pure Living Spirit). Reference is made to the literary-historical and period metanarrative, emphasizing the presence of the ideal in the author’s work, which, however, was somewhat sidelined in the historical context, so that with the passage of time, Nováková was categorized under documentary realism. In the context of recent literary-history debates over the term ideal realism, and making use of the reception at that time, we demonstrate the stylization techniques Nováková used to construct, through her acknowledged work with oral and written documents, a text referring to the idea of nation-building based on culturally accepted paradigms.
This study deals with the personality of the writer Teréza Nováková (1853-1912). The author and her work is a classic example of the domain and genre penetration at the turn of the 19th and 20th century. the attention of society turns distinctively to folk culture and ethnology now shapes up as a scientific branch. Realism dominates the literature and rural themes are very actual. Many personalities are able to interconnect science and art and to engage themselves in both directions. T. Nováková is one of them and, moreover, she brings in the publicistic and journalistic genres, as well as the aspects of struggle for women’s emancipation.