Major issues related to the National Revival : (vacillation between Romanticism and realism as a comparative subject)

The paper's aim is to provide a workable definition and periodisation of the National Revival as a complex process of forming a modern (community-based) nation, and to discern mutual relations between the historical and literary approaches to such a division; of the two, the former involves the phases of scholarly interest, of national exhortation, and of mass appeal, while the latter divides the Czech National Revival into periods according to the successive literary movements (Classicism, Pre-Romanticism, Romanticism, and realism). Crucial influence on the building of a modern society and on the artistic reflection of its problems is attributed to Romanticism, which in the Czech context (i.e. in a small nation with broken political and cultural traditions) was delayed, lagging behind and practising genre modification (for example the verse romance performed in Central Europe the function of modern novel, which consequently did not appear on the local literary scene until realism took root late in the 19th century). The study also explores the fluctuation between Romanticism and realistic inclinations during the 1850s and 1860s, which influenced the origin and creations of the "Máj generation". Regarded as a trashy genre of low worth and poor aesthetic value by local historiographers, this vacillation was not an uncommon occurrence until modern movements gained strength in the late 1900s. Finally, the paper formulates a proposal for an interdisciplinary and comparative literary history, which, in harmony with the "ingressive" concept of literary history (M. C. Pope and J. Neubauer) and with the help of "crucial" links - "space metaphors" (in this case employing the year 1848) – would endeavour to give a faithful representation of Central European National Revival as a complete unity comprising numerous interruptions, digressions, breaks and vacancies.