O nowym historycznoliterackim paradygmacie, historii, kanonie i badaczach literatury

Abstract

The author questions the possibility of writing the history of national literature by means of post-modern research methodologies. The post-modern humanistics disregards previous assumptions of continuity, essentialism, cohesion and the assumption of the existence of historical truth which basically precludes writing the history of literature and the history as, e.g. a national whole, in the methodological sense. The author considers this issue in relation with the Czech discussion about the scientific paradigms on the canon of Czech literature that operate in humanistics. He rejects the antiessentialists’ radicalism, undermines the focus of the researchers exclusively on intellectual constructs and is sceptical about the present domination of historic-literary theory over practice. The author claims that, despite the pressure from antiessentialists, the kernel of the Czech literature and historical studies should still be the search for the identity of national literature, defining its relations with other cultures and processes, and an attempt to discover national and supranational values in Czech literature that could be at present showed as canonical.