The article is written by Joraslav Peprnik. The article is an overview of the Czech themes and figures, and other English literature topics (Peprnik 34). The survey of these factors is based on fiction, meaning there is no tangible evidence on these issues.
The Czechs were not mentioned by many writers in the past apart from Burton and Walton; but in the later centuries, starting from the 18th century, there emerged a lot of information about the Czechs.
The text gives a historical background of the Bohemia, its geographical position and related legendary history (Peprnik 34). The appropriate audience for this work should be scholars, who should be given a hint of the historical aspects related to Bohemia.
The article has a systemic representation of the events that occurred in the field of literature. It gives most of the events that have occurred in early times of Bohemia. In between 1558 and 1609 years, Bohemia was made famous by William Shakespeare in his “Winter’s Tale” (Peprnik 34).
The article looks critically into the life of the Bohemians, their life style and the criticism on the way they led their lives (Peprnik 36). This information was made available by the characters used in a number of plays that depicted Bohemia in the 14th Century (Peprnik 36).
The author does another comparison of Bohemia in the 17th Century using literature. In this century, the author touches on issues such wolf madness, which is shown in the artwork “The Anatomy of Melancholy” done by Robert Burton.
The madness had forced people to run to the graves but the act was not taken with the serious it deserved (Burton 13). Another work of the same year in Bohemia describes the Bishop as an expert in choosing a place for ponds and it depicts him as the authority in the fish age (Peprnik 36).
The artwork Daniel Defoes “Memoirs of a Cavalier” also gives reference to Bohemia. It describes the causes behind the birth of Protestants in Bohemia (Peprnik 36). The 19th century literature also describes Bohemia using work by Thomas Carlyle; the literature basically describes the legendary history of Bohemia.
The author also looks into the historical figures in the 18th to 20th century. The texts have looked at all the kings that were in Bohemia at that time. Some of the literature that describes the historic rulers of Bohemia is “William the Conqueror” that was done by Rudyard Kipling plus other literatures (Burton 13).
The author points out that location of Bohemia in Czech was described in literature. Some of the work that had description of Bohemia was “Tristram Shandy” that was done by Laurence Sterne. Other than the work, there were other books that had given a rational description of Bohemia’s physical location.
Another feature that is mentioned in the duration of 18th-20th century was Prague. The city is mentioned and described by the work of Daniel Defoe and George Eliot (Burton 13).
By 20th century, there were a number of literatures that depicted discoveries that were made by Czech explorers. The author also makes an analysis of literature that was prepared during the world wars. It depicts how Czechs refused to collaborate with the Nazis (Peprnik 36). It further depicts the discrimination that was accorded to the Czechs, which claimed they could not study any technical subject.
Literature of the 20th century has some aspects of sports in it and described Czech as a football nation. There were also the personal responses by the writers, through which every person had a specific way of representing Czech.
The literatures and descriptions by the author are systemic and they touch on many events in Czech. The author has used a lot of literature and books to relate and give a chronological representation of the events. In addition, the author was very keen in ensuring that all the aspects of Bohemia are represented. However, the author does not give us a clear correlation between fiction and reality.
The article does not give the challenges that were faced during presentation of Bohemia from ancient times to the present Czech. The article also fails to give an elaborate account of all attempts to bring all the evidence together. The article has helped the audience create a rough idea of Czech from the historic background to the present Czech.
In conclusion, literature can be used to give a precise account of a place or an event. Despite the fact that most literature uses fiction, there are traces of connection to the real world.
Works Cited
Burton, Robert. The Anatomy of Melancholy, What it is, With All the Kinds, Causes, Symptoms, Prognostics, and Several Cures of it. London, UK: J. Cuthell, 1821. Print.
Peprnik, Jaroslav. “Czechs in British Literature.” Perspectives 5 (1995): 32-38. Print.