Latin cultural space – Czechs and Poles in New Latin relations. The ancient roots of Szwejk

Abstract

The article concerns an analysis of New Latin literature from the Czech area in search of references to Polish culture and to Czech culture in Polish literature in Latin. The cultural community, whose bonding element was antiquity, is particularly relevant to Prague, Wrocław and Kraków. Participation in rhetorical agonas in Latin, mutual descriptors of nationality: these are just some of the issues. Also interesting is the model of the character of Szwejk, for whom the prototype could also be drawn from antiquity. The character of the warrior, who has a distance from the events in which he participates, and is inconspicuous but nevertheless ‘spring of events’, protected by fate. This is in fact a typical hero of antique and New Latin comedy, who, however, evolved in a special way in Czech literature (Jaroslava Hašek, Zdenek Jirotka, Petr Šabach) unlike in Polish literature (Aleksander Fredro, Henryk Sienkiewicz, Kazimierz Sławiński).