Bedřich Václavek (10 January 1897 – 5 March 1943) was a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

literary theorist, critic, journalist and Marxist aesthetician.

Biography

Václavek was born on 10 January 1897 in

Čáslavice Čáslavice is a municipality and village in Třebíč District in the Vysočina Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 600 inhabitants. Geography Čáslavice is located about southwest of Třebíč and southeast of Jihlava. Most of the muni ...

into a poor rural family. After graduating from high school in 1915, he was drafted into the army, where he served until the end of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. Then he entered

Charles University Charles University (CUNI; , UK; ; ), or historically as the University of Prague (), is the largest university in the Czech Republic. It is one of the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest universities in the world in conti ...

in Prague, where from 1918 to 1923 he studied Germanic and Bohemian studies at the Faculty of Philosophy. His teachers were leading figures in Czech literary studies and folklore such as

Zdeněk Nejedlý Zdeněk Nejedlý (10 February 1878 – 9 March 1962) was a Czech musicologist, historian, music critic, author, and politician whose ideas dominated the cultural life of what is now the Czech Republic for most of the twentieth century. Although ...

and

Otokar Fischer Otokar Fischer (20 May 1883 – 12 March 1938) was a Czech literary historian, translator, poet and critic. He was born in Kolín, then part of Austria-Hungary. He made new translations of Goethe, Shakespeare and Villon. He was a professor at ...

. In 1922 he went to Berlin and studied theater and journalism there. After that he worked as a school teacher and librarian at the State and University libraries in Brno. He was a member of the group of avant-garde artists

Devětsil The Devětsil () was an association of Czech people, Czech avant-garde artists, founded in 1920 in Prague. From 1923 on there was also an active group in Brno. The movement discontinued its activities in 1930 (1927 in Brno). History Founded as Um ...

. A member of the

Communist Party of Czechoslovakia The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia ( Czech and Slovak: ''Komunistická strana Československa'', KSČ) was a communist and Marxist–Leninist political party in Czechoslovakia that existed between 1921 and 1992. It was a member of the Com ...

from 1925, Bedřich Václavek was actively involved in the labor movement of his region, organizing actions of solidarity between cultural figures and striking miners in 1932. In 1933, Bedřich Václavek came under police surveillance due to his active communist activities and was transferred away from Brno – to the university library in Olomouc. He was also one of the main organisers of the Left Front. In 1939, he had become an associate professor at the

Masaryk University Masaryk University (MU) (; ) is the second largest university in the Czech Republic, a member of the Compostela Group and the Utrecht Network. Founded in 1919 in Brno, it now consists of ten faculties and 35,115 students. It is named after To ...

, however his PhD thesis was not accepted by the ministry of education. Bedrich Vaclavek - plaque detail

After the Nazi invasion, Václavek went underground, becoming one of the leaders of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, which had been banned. Julius Fučík brought him to work in the editorial office of the illegal newspaper of the Central Committee of the party ''

Rudé právo ''Rudé právo'' ( Czech for ''Red Justice'' or ''The Red Right'') was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. History and profile ''Rudé právo'' was founded in 1920 when the party was splitting from the social demo ...

''. In 1942, after Fučík's arrest, Gestapo picked up Václavek's trail and he was soon arrested. During the first interrogation he identified himself by the pseudonym "Grdina" (translated as 'hero'). Václavek was tortured by the Prague Gestapo and imprisoned in Pankrác Prison. He died on 5 March 1943 (possibly killed by lethal injection) in the

Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...

at the age of 46, without giving his real name.

Works

Bedřich Václavek was one of the most prominent critics and theorists of avant-garde art and Czech Marxist literature. He analysed aesthetics, literary criticism, popular culture and history from the perspective of a Marxist. He initially belonged to the theorists of the avant-garde and was a representative of

poetism Poetism () was an artistic program in Czechoslovakia which belongs to the avant-garde; it has never spread abroad. It was invented by members of the avant-garde association Devětsil, mainly Vítězslav Nezval and Karel Teige. It is mainly known i ...

and

constructivism Constructivism may refer to: Art and architecture * Constructivism (art), an early 20th-century artistic movement that extols art as a practice for social purposes * Constructivist architecture, an architectural movement in the Soviet Union in t ...

but in the 1930s became a proponent of Socialist realism. He represented a synthetic and dynamic view of socialist realism as a synthesis of avant-garde and proletarian art with active relationships with life. He also devoted himself to noetic questions in art.

Books

* Od umění k tvorbě, 1928, 1949 * Poesie v rozpacích, 1930 * Česká literatura XX. století, 1935, 1947, 1974 * Tvorbou k realitě, 1937, 1946 * Písemnictví a lidová tradice, 1938, 1947 * Lidová slovesnost v českém vývoji literárním, 1940 * Deset týdnů, 1946, 1958 * O české písni lidové a zlidovělé, 1950 * Tvorba a společnost, 1961 * Literární studie a podobizny, 1962 * O lidové písni a slovesnosti, 1963 * Knihy z Ruska a o Rusku, 1965 * Tradice a modernost, 1973 * Kritické stati z třicátých let, 1975 * Juvenilie, 1978 * Ruská revoluce a literatura, 1980 * Tvorba a skutečnost, 1980 * Korespondence Bedřich Václavek s Hanou Humlovou, 1983

Collected works

* Společenské vlivy v životě a díle K. H. Máchy, Torzo a tajemství Máchova díla, 1938 * SSSR v československé poezii, 1936 * České písně kramářské, (Mitautor Robert Smetana), 1937, 1949 * Všemu navzdory (unter dem Pseudonym P. Bok), 1938 * Český národní zpěvník, (Mitautor Robert Smetana), 1940, 1949 * Historie utěšené a kratochvilné, 1941 (Pseudonym L. Čivrný), 1950 * Český listář, 1949 * Kniha satir, (Mitautor D. Šajner), 1949 * České světské písně zlidovělé, (Mitautor Robert Smetana), 1955

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vaclavek, Bedrich 1897 births 1943 deaths People from Třebíč District Czech literary critics Czech literary historians Czech folklorists Czech Marxists Academic staff of Masaryk University Charles University alumni Communist Party of Czechoslovakia politicians Czechoslovak journalists Czech anti-fascists Czech resistance members Czech people who died in Auschwitz concentration camp