Title: Karel Čapek's graphic Britain : a study of the visual intermodernism of Čapek's Letters from England
Source document: Art East Central. 2021, vol. 1, iss. 1, pp. 51-76
Extent
51-76
-
ISSN2695-1428 (online)
Persistent identifier (DOI): https://doi.org/10.5817/AEC2021-1-3
Stable URL (handle): https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/143600
Type: Article
Language
License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International
Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.
Abstract(s)
Best known as a science-fiction writer, Karel Čapek's drawings from his 1924 tour of Great Britain are here analysed in terms of what is categorised as 'intermodernism.' As an integral part of the travelogue he published in English as Letters from England, they are seen as coordinates for navigating identity, detailing, through their construction and composition of lines, a subtle and perceptive understanding of difference and unity. That they are biographical as well as ostensibly documentary is conveyed through exploring the development of their visual language and its blending of modernist and historic conventions. Simultaneously, their assessment of society and nature is revealed as a nuanced explication of community and place. Čapek's visual journey beyond the country of his birth is evaluated in terms of the meanings to be found in the acute, quirky and ironic nature of his drawings. Ultimately, the distinctions in form, seeing and understanding are revealed in terms of Čapek's non-canonical, synthetic and humanist intermodernism.
References
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[2] Anon. 1925b. As Mr. Capek sees us, The Observer, 15 March 1925, 5.
[3] Bleumel K., ed, 2009. Intermodernism: Literary Culture in Mid-Twentieth-Century Britain. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
[4] Bleumel, K. Literary Culture in Mid-Twentieth-Century Britain, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
[5] Čapek K. 1923. Italské listy. Praha: Aventinum.
[6] Čapek K. 1924a. How it feels to be in England, The Manchester Guardian, 27 September 1924, 11.
[7] Čapek K. 1924b. Anglické Listy. Prague: Aventinum.
[8] Čapek K. 1925b. Letters from England, trans. Paul Selver. London: Geoffrey Bles.
[9] Čapek K. 1929. Letters from Italy, trans. Francis P. Marchant. London: Besant & Co.
[10] Čapek K. 1929-1935. Hovory s T. G. Masarykem, Prague: Čin.
[11] Čapek K. 1930. Výlet do Španěl. Prague: Aventinum, 1930
[12] Čapek K. 1931. Letters from Spain, trans. Paul Selver. London: Geoffrey Bles.
[13] Čapek K. 1932. Obrázky z Holandska. Prague: Aventinum.
[14] Čapek K. 1933a. Dashenka, Or the Life of a Puppy, trans. M. and R. Weatherall. London: George Allen and Unwin.
[15] Čapek K. 1933b. Letters from Holland, trans. Paul Selver. London: Faber and Faber.
[16] Čapek K. 1934. President Masaryk tells his Story. London: George Allen & Unwin.
[17] Čapek K. 1936. Cesta na sever. Prague: Fr. Borový.
[18] Čapek K. 1939. Travels in the North, trans. M. and R. Weatherall. London: George Allen & Unwin.
[19] Čapek K. 1954. Obrázky z domova, ed. M. Halik. Prague: Československý spisovatel, 1954.
[20] Čapek K. 2001. Letters from England, trans. Geoffrey Newsome. London: Continuum.
[21] Rakušanová M. 2018. Prague-Brno: Expressionism in Context. In I. Wünsche, ed., The Routledge Companion to Expressionism in a Transnational Context, 33-55. New York: Routledge.
[22] Šolić M. 2019. In Search of a Shared Expression: Karel Čapek’s Travel Writing and Imaginative Geography of Europe. Prague: Charles University.