Publication at Faculty of Arts |
2016
Abstract
The article contrasts Byron's use of Ossianic themes and style in Hours of Idleness with Romantic Ossianism in the work of the leading Czech Romantic Karel Hynek Mácha. The analysis of Byron's uses of Ossianic material shows their affinity with Romantic Ossianism, especially in proto-existentialist terms but also in view of the hybridization of genres and styles.
In the work of Karel Hynek Mácha, these features are strengthened in resistance to dogmatic aspects of Czech nationalist ideology. Ossianic symbols are used both to deconstruct the nationalist ideology and creatively: in Mácha's figurative language articulating the tragic temporality of individual and collective existence.