Příběh jednoho moderního projektu

This monograph by Jindřich Toman, a professor of Slavonic studies at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) in the U. S. A., strives to present the linguistics of the Prague Linguistic Circle in wider cultural and political context. The scholar addresses the style of the linguistic work at the beginning of the 20th century, the role of the Prague multicultural society in the formation of the Circle, the links between the Circle and the avant-garde as well as the influence of modern cultural ideals on linguistics. The work also contains intellectual biographies of Vilém Mathesius, Roman Jakobson and Nikolai S. Trubetzkoy, which among other things also show to what extent the ideals of collective work, the syntheses of knowledge and an emphasis on the socially defined commitment to linguistics influenced their work. Further chapters describe the rise of the Prague phonology and the question of theory of language culture. The monograph was originally published in English (MIT Press, 1995). The Czech translation is supplemented with the scholar's retrospective essay and updated bibliography.