Vladislav Vančura

This is the first major analytical study in English of the work of the leading Czech Avant-garde novelist and dramatist, Vladislav Vančura, often regarded as the greatest exponent of the Czech language in prose. In the study, Vančura's paradoxical attitude to contradictions, which he seeks simultaneously to overcome and to preserve, is used as a key to understanding his writing and its often ambivalent critical reception. His major works are considered in the context of art and medicine, Poetism and Proletarian art, Bergson and Marx, collectivism and non-conformism, judgement and forgiveness and the Renaissance and modern human being. The author seeks thus to place Vančura at the heart of Czech literature's preoccupations and aspirations in the inter-war period.

Acknowledgments
Vladislav Vančura: A Brief Biographical Note
Introduction: Finding a Name for Vančura
Nemocná dívka and Tři řeky: The Doctor-Writer
Amazonský proud and Dlouhý, Široký, Bystrozraký: The Proletarian Poetist
Amazonský proud and Hrdelní pře anebo Přísloví: The Bergsonian Marxist
Pekař Jan Marhoul and Poslední soud: The Collectivist Non-Conformist
Pole orná a válečná and Rozmarné léto: The Judgemental Philanthropist
Markéta Lazarová, Alchymista and 'Občan Don Quijote': The Renaissance Czech
Obrazy z dějin národa českého: The Chronicler
Conclusion: The 'Radical Centre'
Bibliography
Index