Jiří Wolker (; 29 March 1900 – 3 January 1924) 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 ...
poet. He was also marginally journalist and playwright. Although he lived a short life, he became one of the most important Czech poets.
Life
Jiří Wolker was born on 29 March 1900 in
Prostějov
Prostějov (; ) is a city in the Olomouc Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 43,000 inhabitants. The city is historically known for its fashion industry. The historic city centre is well preserved and is protected as an urban monument zo ...
. He grew up in a harmonious family. His father was a banker and later a bank director, and his mother was involved in various cultural associations and wrote for magazines and newspapers. He had an older brother. He studied at the Prostějov
gymnasium and already at this time he was attracted to literature and began to publish in newspapers.
After he graduated, he moved to
Prague
Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...
. He studied law there, but simultaneously attended lectures of
Zdeněk Nejedlý and
František Xaver Šalda at the
Faculty of Arts, Charles University. As a journalist, he contributed to magazines ''Kmen'', ''Červen'' and ''Var''. He joined the association of Czech
avant-garde
In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...
artists
Devětsil, but soon left it. Among his friends were
Jaroslav Seifert
Jaroslav Seifert (; 23 September 1901 – 10 January 1986) was a Czech writer, poet and journalist. Seifert was awarded the 1984 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his poetry which endowed with freshness, sensuality and rich inventiveness provides ...
,
Karel Toman,
Vítězslav Nezval
Vítězslav Nezval (; 26 May 1900 – 6 April 1958) was a Czechs, Czech poet, writer and translator. He was one of the most prolific avant-garde Czech writers in the first half of the 20th century and a co-founder of the Surrealism, Surrealist ...
and
Konstantin Biebl, all members of Devětsil. During his studies, his parents could only send him a limited amount of money, which he spent on books, so he had to earn extra money by tutoring Czech. In 1921, he left the Roman Catholic Church and joined 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 ...
.
Wolker was known for often having many girls hanging around him and for having multiple girlfriends at the same time. His adventures ended when he was diagnosed with tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...
in April 1923. He went to the Tatranská Polianka (a sanatorium and hamlet, part of Vysoké Tatry) for treatment, but the disease progressed and later memory loss also occurred. Shortly before his death, he returned to Prostějov, where he died on 3 January 1924, at age 23. He is buried in Prostějov.[
]
Work
Wolker is among the most important Czech poets. During his lifetime, he published only three books – ''Host do domu'' ('Guest to the House'), ''Svatý Kopeček'' and ''Těžká hodina'' ('The Heavy Hour'). The poems in ''Host do domu'' are characterized by the elements of harmony, lack of conflict, the beauty of life, and love for people and ordinary things.[ The best poem from the collection is often considered to be ''Poštovní schránka'' ('The Mailbox').
Wolker, together with ]Karel Teige
Karel Teige (13 December 1900 – 1 October 1951) was a Czech modernist avant-garde artist, writer, critic and one of the most important figures of the 1920s and 1930s movement. He was a member of the '' Devětsil'' (Butterbur) movement in the ...
, was the founder of the Czech art movement called ''Proletářské umění'' (Proletarian
The proletariat (; ) is the social class of wage-earners, those members of a society whose possession of significant economic value is their labour power (their capacity to work). A member of such a class is a proletarian or a . Marxist philo ...
art). That is why he was perceived as a proletarian poet, although he never belonged to the proletarians. This movement primarily depicted the working class
The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...
, its oppression and exploitation. It was characterized by hatred of war and a desire for a fair world. The collection ''Těžká hodina'' contains typical poems of this artistic direction, e.g. ''Balada o očích topičových'' ('The Eyes of the Stoker').[
Wolker also wrote dark fairy tales and raw erotic work, but he did not publish it during his lifetime.
Wolker's well-known work is his own ]epitaph
An epitaph (; ) is a short text honoring a deceased person. Strictly speaking, it refers to text that is inscribed on a tombstone or plaque, but it may also be used in a figurative sense. Some epitaphs are specified by the person themselves be ...
, which he wrote before his death:[
]
List of works
*''Host do domu'' (1921) – poetry
*''Svatý Kopeček'' (1921) – poetry (in later editions it became part of ''Host do domu'')
*''Proletářské umění'' (1922) – manifesto
A manifesto is a written declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party, or government. A manifesto can accept a previously published opinion or public consensus, but many prominent ...
, together with Karel Teige
Karel Teige (13 December 1900 – 1 October 1951) was a Czech modernist avant-garde artist, writer, critic and one of the most important figures of the 1920s and 1930s movement. He was a member of the '' Devětsil'' (Butterbur) movement in the ...
*''Těžká hodina'' (1922) – poetry
*''Tři hry'' (1923) – plays
*''Do boje, lásko, leť'' (1923) – poetry, letters to his girlfriend and his own epitaph
Honours and legacy
The Museum and Gallery in Prostějov has a permanent literary exhibition of the work of Jiří Wolker.
Every year, a poetry festival called Wolker's Prostějov is held in Prostějov.
Wolker's birthplace on T. G. Masaryka Square in Prostějov
Prostějov (; ) is a city in the Olomouc Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 43,000 inhabitants. The city is historically known for its fashion industry. The historic city centre is well preserved and is protected as an urban monument zo ...
is a house with a Renaissance and Gothic core, protected as a cultural monument. It is equipped with a commemorative plaque and a bust of Wolker. A bronze statue of Jiří Wolker was unveiled in 2018 on a bench opposite his birthplace.
In Svatý Kopeček (today part of Olomouc
Olomouc (; ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 103,000 inhabitants, making it the Statutory city (Czech Republic), sixth largest city in the country. It is the administrative centre of the Olomouc Region.
Located on the Morava (rive ...
) is a house where Wolker visited his grandmother and spent a lot of time there. Today it is called Wolker's Villa and there is a memorial plaque with his bust on it.
Dozens of cities and towns in the Czech Republic have a street named after Jiří Wolker, including Prague ( Bubeneč), Plzeň
Plzeň (), also known in English and German as Pilsen (), is a city in the Czech Republic. It is the Statutory city (Czech Republic), fourth most populous city in the Czech Republic with about 188,000 inhabitants. It is located about west of P ...
, Liberec
Liberec (; ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 108,000 inhabitants, making it the fifth largest city in the country. It lies on the Lusatian Neisse River, in a basin surrounded by mountains. The city centre is well preserved and is pr ...
, Olomouc
Olomouc (; ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 103,000 inhabitants, making it the Statutory city (Czech Republic), sixth largest city in the country. It is the administrative centre of the Olomouc Region.
Located on the Morava (rive ...
, Hradec Králové
Hradec Králové (; ) is a city of the Czech Republic. It has about 94,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of the Hradec Králové Region. The historic centre of Hradec Králové is well preserved and is protected as an Cultural monument (Czech R ...
and Pardubice
Pardubice (; ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 92,000 inhabitants. It is the capital city of the Pardubice Region and lies on the Elbe River. The historic centre is well preserved and is protected as an Cultural monument (Czech Repub ...
.
References
External links
Poems of Jiří Wolker
on cesky-jazyk.cz
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolker, Jiri
1900 births
1924 deaths
Czech male poets
Czech male dramatists and playwrights
Czech journalists
Writers from Prostějov
Czech people of German descent
20th-century Czech poets
20th-century Czech dramatists and playwrights
Czech communist poets
20th-century journalists
20th-century deaths from tuberculosis
Tuberculosis deaths in Czechoslovakia
Tuberculosis deaths in the Czech Republic