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"White mountain - mountain cursed!"

Publication at Faculty of Arts |
2020

Abstract

The book "Horo Bílá - horo kletá!" is an anthology of short stories that thematically draw from the social and political situation of the first decades of the 17th century. Its aim is to show how the perception of the Battle of White Mountain as an important part of the national myth was formed in Czech literature in the 19th century.

Apart from the most important poems (Čech's Václav z Michalovice), novels (Winter's Mistr Kampanus) and dramas (Kolár's Pražský žid), the White Mountain period resonated in dozens of smaller texts in which its understanding as a fateful national tragedy was stabilized. The anthology we set up from them contains short stories that were once popular (Václav Beneš Třebízský: Levohradecká povídka) and often ignored (Alois Jirásek: Andělé boží), reminds the writings of impressive authors (Zikmund Winter: V těžké bouři) and the completely forgotten (Emanuel Makovička: O Vánocích roku 1620) and dates back to a broad picture of Rudolfinian Bohemia (J.

E. Vocel: Hlatipisec) to episodes from the Thirty Years' War (Eduard Herold: Sirotci kutnohorští).