"Useless hero" in the Czech and Polish literatures at the end of the nineteenth century : comparison based on the differences

The "useless hero" is associated with many and various literary characters which appear in all literatures, chiefly since the romantic era, and which change according to the evolution of aesthetic and ethical conceptions. In Slav novels they are often connected with the conception of "Slav unproductiveness" and can be evaluated as a trait of their specificity, justifying their particular position in the context of European literatures. At the end of the nineteenth century the "useless hero" who appears in the novels of Sienkiewicz and Zeyer is very different from the figure of Des Esseintes of Huysmans's novel or that of Greslou known from the novel by Bourget. The Slav "useless heroes" are not aesthetic or scientific speculators but complicated, deceived and disappointed men of feeling, unable to accomplish any projects. But the heroes of Zeyer and Sienkiewicz do not behave in the same way. The "Slav unproductiveness" perhaps influences the destiny of Płoszowski, whereas Plojhar and Rojko try, though vainly, to accomplish something. The position of the "useless hero" in Czech and Polish novels appears as a specific feature of Slav literatures, but the differences between them indicate that the specificity is complex.