A Scholar and a Braggart. A Document Discovered at the Institut d’études slaves in Paris, Laryngiada by Hanuš Jelínek (1929)

Xavier Galmiche

Pages	29–36
DOI	10.1515/amnpsc-2017-0015
Keywords	Hanuš Jelínek – Czech literature – Bohemians – Czechs in Paris – Adolf Hoffmeister – Institut d’études slaves in Paris – humour – humorous literature – braggartism – autobiographical mock epic
Type of Article	Peer-reviewed
Citation	GALMICHE, Xavier. A Scholar and a Braggart. A Document Discovered at the Institut d’études slaves in Paris, Laryngiada by Hanuš Jelínek (1929). Acta Musei Nationalis Pragae – Historia litterarum. Prague: National Museum, 2016, 61(1-2), 29–36. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/amnpsc-2017-0015 . ISSN 0036-5351. Also available from: https://www.nm.cz/en/periodicals/amnphl/61-1-2/a-scholar-and-a-braggart-a-document-discovered-at-the-institut-detudes-slaves-in-paris-laryngiada-by-hanus-jelinek-1929

Acta Musei Nationalis Pragae – Historia litterarum | 2016/61/1-2

The core of the work of Hanuš Jelínek comprises, among other things, writings in French which are to promote the knowledge of Czech literature, its thematic and poetic characteristics and its history. In 1910–1930, Jelínek’s works were characterised by the pursuit of scholarship and fondness for erudition. Nevertheless, Jelínek is likewise one of Czech Bohemians (‘bohème bohême’) – the artists, writers, essayists, the rebellious and often cheerful generation of the 1890s, a part of which lived in Paris. The serious man was thus also a braggart. The traces of this braggartism can be found in Jelínek’s memoirs Zahučaly lesy [Roaring Forests], his correspondence as well as in his poem Laryngiada, which he published in 1929 and which was illustrated by Adolf Hoffmeister. Institut d’études slaves in Paris owns a typescript of this joke in verse describing a pharynx surgery in a humorous way. In 1928, Jelínek dedicated it to the poet Richard Weiner. In his suggested translation of some key stanzas, the author of the article has tried to grasp the composition in the context of a scientific humorous song.

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