Literary scholarship has traditionally focused predominantly on the examination of works of literature and their genetic and development aspects, leaving aside what is equally important for the existence of literature — the investigation of reception. It is twice as important in the case of a work of literature in a foreign language where it starts living only after the translation is published. It is of essential importance whether an awareness about the work, and the desire to read it, was raised among the potential readers. Different cultural context, as well as the paratext mediation of the work, certainly play a role in their understanding and appreciation of the work of art.

The international conference “World Literature in Czechia – Czech Literature in the World” strives to identify factors that play a role in communication between the world and Czech literature and insert them into a wider theoretical framework of culture transition, to map theoretical and methodological issues of the examination of reception, to investigate the life of particular works of art in a foreign environment and the related issue of their translation, publishing, interpretative mediation and promotion.

Contributions reflecting the following topics are welcome:

• Possibilities and limits of investigating the life of a work of art from the point of view of literary theory
• Possibilities and limits of investigating the life of a work of art from the point of view of literary history
• The lives of work of world literature in Czechia
• The lives of works of Czech literature in the world
• Questions of translation and publishing of literature in foreign language
• Promoting literature in the Internet age

The conference will take place on November 11 and 12, 2020, at the Faculty of Arts University of South Bohemia (Branišovská 31a, České Budějovice, Czech Republic).

The languages spoken are Czech and English.

Abstracts of up to 300 words should be sent, by September 20, 2020, to: dskalicky@ff.jcu.cz.

You will be notified whether your proposal has been accepted by September 30, 2020.

Conference fee: CZK 1,500 (you will be informed about the details of the payment when your proposal is accepted).

Conference Organisational Committee:
prof. Vladimír Papoušek
prof. Tomáš Kubíček
doc. Ladislav Nagy
dr. David Skalický