Czech Mid19 th Century Stylistics and Rhetoric Two

Czech Mid-19 th Century Stylistics and Rhetoric: Two Ways from Periphery to Centre Alena A. Fidlerová FF UK Praha

Czech National Revival • Between 1775 -1848 • To protect, cultivate and enrich Czech language and broaden its communicative capabilities • Codification of new standard Czech • Especially its first phase of a profoundly philological nature • Advancement of literary production and language study

František Matouš Klácel (1808 -1882) • Počátky vědecké mluvnictví českého [Scientific foundation of Czech Grammar] • (1843)

Josef Jungmann (1773 -1847) • Slovesnost [Verbal Art] • (1 st edition 1820, 2 nd, thoroughly revised edition 1845)

František Matouš Klácel • Most of his life spent in Brno (Moravia – periphery), in his later years emigrated to America • Augustinian monk (periphery of secular intellectual circles) • Writer, journalist, philosopher and social utopian (not philologist – periphery)

Počátky vědecké • Philosophical grammar with a closing section on style, stylistics and rhetoric • Hegelian inspiration • Factographical sources: • Schmitthenner, F. Ursprachlehre (1826) • Schmitthenner, F. Teutonia (1828) • Rapp, K. M. Versuch einer Physiologie de Sprache (18361841) • Becker, K. F. Organism der Sprache (2 nd ed. 1841) • Stern, S. Lehrbuch der allgemeinen Grammatik. (1840) • No immediate sources for the section o n style

Počátky vědecké • Style: • Corresponding to the level of spiritual development of the individual • Unteachable and unlearnable • Stylistics, rhetoric: • Style can be improved by imitation of models recognized as related • Teaching classical rhetoric is a torture of children

Počátky vědecké • Assessment and impact: • Rash composition, factual mistakes, difficult language, break with the tradition • Unsuccessful, almost no response • Regarded as dead end

Josef Jungmann • Lived in Litoměřice and later in Prague (centre) • Secondary school teacher, translator and scholar (centre) • Author of numerous philological works (including Slovník česko-německý [Czech-German Dictionary] in 5 volumes) • Called by his younger adherents „Báťuška“ („Papa“)

Slovesnost • Intended to be a secondary school chrestomaty with a theoretical introduction • Sources: • Pölitz, K. H. Das Gesammtgebiet der teutschen Sprache, nach Prosa, Dichtkunst und Beredsamkeit theoretisch und practisch dargestellt (1825) • Eberhard, J. A. Handbuch der Aesthetik für gebildete Leser aus allen Ständen (1803 -1805) • Reinbeck, G. Deutsche Sprachlehre, nebst Anleitung zu schriftlichen Aufsätzen (1817) • Clodius, Ch. A. H. Entwurf einer systematischen Poetik nebst Collectaneen zu ihrer Ausführung (1804) • Greč, N. I. Učebnaja kniga russkoj slovesnosti (1819) • Hensius, T. Teut, oder theoretisch-praktisches Lehrbuch der gesammten Deutschen Sprachwissenschaft (1807)

Slovesnost • Style: • Defined according to the psychologizing approach of Pölitz, supplemented with notinos from the classical rhetoric (principle of aptum, adequacy) • Depends primarily on the genre of the text, not on the degree of spiritual development of the author • Learnable and teachable • Stylistic, rhetoric: • Rhetoric is no more theory of all literary production, only of the monological persuasive speech • The rules of classical rhetoric incorporated into the aesthetic and psychological framework

Conclusion: Periphery catching up with the centre • Klácel: Inspired by the major intellectual currents of the time, trying to raise substantially the level of the scholarly debate, unsuccessful • Jungmann: Inspired by the widely accepted knowledge of mediocre intellectual value, aiming at gradual cultivation of young people, successful • Is it necessary?