Abstrakt
The paper will present an overview of the history of the reception of Jane Eyre in the Czech Lands, with a special attention to its adaptations. Since the 19th century, the Brontës were published very frequently in Czechoslovakia and still seem to be among the most popular British authors in the country.
The paper will therefore study the value system of the novel in relation to the Czech cultural environment, as well as the correlation between changes in the reception of the novel and transformations in the socio-historical context. Thus, Jane Eyre allows us to study how the perception of a text is shaped by the expectations of the readers, which are determined by their socio-historical conditions.
In the traditional Czech society of the 19th century, the actual reception of the novel was preceded by the very popular theatrical adaptation The Lowood Orphan by Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer, a conventional love-story stripped of all the controversial issues of the original, the problematic gender roles, female emancipation, Rochester's questionable moral status, which might have helped later positive reception of the novel itself. Following the tradition of the play, the first part of Jane Eyre was also adapted as a book for children and thus published several times throughout the 20th century, notably omitting the whole story of Jane's adult life with the most controversial issues in the novel.
The reception of the novel was thus shaped by constant negotiations between the translations, strongly distorting adaptations, and the value system of the public.