The Category of Sensibility and Its Catalogue of Themes and Motifs in Pavel Vilikovský´s Debut Book Sentimental Education in March

Abstract

The goal of the paper is to trace motifs and themes found in Pavel Vilikovský´s debut book titled Citová výchova v marci (Sentimental Education in March, 1965) that relate to the category of sensibility. The introduction outlines literary historical conceptualizations of the self and sensibility: sentimentalism, Rousseauesque self, sentimental attitude to the world in the sense as formulated by F. Schiller, sentimental natural line (V. Svatoň). They represent the starting point of the interpretative part where they, as historically unlimited tendencies of literary production, are updated and modified under the influence of modernist poetics and worldview in the context of the 1960s. The subject of the interpretation is thus a reflective process of self-realization. It takes place on the level of body as a sensitive matter, by returning to the elementary, along with searching for authenticity of experience, which is gradually verified through the concept of Romantic illusion: the theme of human self-deception based on the predefined patterns contributes to disillusioned reassessment of sentimental education. The reflection of this shift is linked to modernist elimination of fake sentiment in sensibility (e.g. influence of the Hemingway style in the short story titled Tvoj prvý ston/Your First Moan). The given framework helps show the value hierarchy of emotions and the problem of the ethical conflict between freedom and responsibility for the others.

Keywords

• pavel vilikovský (1941 – 2020)
• sentimental education
• romantic illusion
• sentimental attitude
• selfrealization