Between “failed translation” and “Miltonic spirit”. The search for modern Czech literature between translation and authorship in early 19th century Viennese review journals

The Annalen der österreichischen Literatur (1802–1805, 1807–1812) and the Wiener allgemeine Literaturzeitung (1813–1816), both review journals, offer a unique perspective on the negotiation of national literatures – including Czech literature – within the Habsburg Empire during the pivotal years of the Napoleonic Wars. This was due to the relatively limited inclusion of the Empire’s national literatures in periodicals, particularly in the first years of the nineteenth century. The Annalen , however, addressed this gap by serving as a synthesis of state-censorial and critical interests. Based on the system theory, this paper underscores their significance, particularly in how fiction criticism was embedded in Enlightenment scholars’ efforts to establish their authority through popular enlightenment and the regulation of potentially harmful fiction. In contrast to these tendencies, the paper traces the re-emergence of expert literary criticism (e.g. in Josef Dobrovský’s polemic with an author from Jan Nejedlý’s circle about Nejedlý’s translation of Florian’s Numa Pompilius , 1808), highlighting both the role of “literary” language and the comparability of advocated national “classics” (such as Jan Nejedlý and Antonín Jaroslav Puchmajer) with their esteemed non-national counterparts, as well as the media strategies employed by younger critics to engage their audiences. The final section of the paper examines the discussion of Czech-language literature in relation to the other literatures of the Empire, seeking a common denominator among them.