Peter Steiner

The Prague Linguistic Circle came into being on the afternoon of October 6, 1926, when five Czech and Russian linguists gathered to hear a lecture by a German colleague. From this international beginning, the interests of the group grew to first encompass language in all its functional heterogeneity and then finally all of culture, which the Circle conceived of as a structure of sign systems. Semiotics was thus the overarching discipline for the Prague School, serving to organize all phenomena shared and exchanged by a cultural community. In recent years increasing attention has been paid to the importance of the Prague School, but writing about it has frequently been marred by misconceptions. The central aim of this volume is to correct those misconceptions and to present the diversity of interests within the Prague School—literary criticism, linguistics, theory of theater, folklore, and philosophy. These essays by Bogatyrëv, Jakobson, Karcevskij, Mukařovský, Rieger, Vodička, and Honzl are here translated into English for the first time. Some have a special historical value in illuminating critical stages of structuralist thinking; others reveal the timeliness of the School's contributions for the theoretical conflicts of our day. Each essay is accompanied by an informative introductory note, and the whole is followed by the editor's "Postscript," tracing the roots of structuralist aesthetics.

Selected Writings, 1929-1946

The Prague School

Good Cop

  Willi Geismeier is proving to be a headache for the Nazis yet again as leader of the Flower Gang - a secret organisation helping people flee Germany. But is his cover about to be blown?
 1944. Captain Charlie Herder's plane is shot down in woods near Munich. A week later, he has managed to evade capture by the SS, but for how much longer? As the American pilot desperately tries to make his way to the French border, a huge manhunt ensues.
 Former Munich police detective Willi Geismeier is still proving to be a thorn in the side of the Gestapo in his new incarnation as leader of the Flower Gang, a flourishing network of secret operatives helping Jews and others escape Germany. But a catastrophe occurs when the gang's plan to help Charlie is compromised, and Willi faces a race against time to work out how their scheme was derailed if he and his operatives are to stand a chance of surviving the war . . .

The Inconvenient German

Das Erste, was wir verstehen sollten, ist, dass ein Job nie einfach nur ein Job ist. Unsere Arbeit ist Ausdruck unseres Lebens, und wir alle verbringen sehr viel Zeit damit. Grund genug, hier für mehr Zufriedenheit zu sorgen. Es geht dabei gar nicht so sehr um die Einzigartigkeit unseres Tuns, sondern vielmehr darum, wie wir etwas tun. Zen kann hier Klarheit schaffen. Wer bin ich und was will ich wirklich? Was ist nur aufgesetzt und was entspricht mir tatsächlich? Diesen entscheidenden Fragen widmet sich diese kurzweilige Einführung in die Praxis des Zen, die uns hilft, tiefer zu blicken und neue Zusammenhänge zu erkennen. Denn mit der Praxis des Zen fi nden wir Frieden und Glück in uns selbst, die wiederum Basis für wahrhaft erfolgreiches Handeln sind.

Mehr Sinn und Zufriedenheit in Job und Alltag

Das Zen des glücklichen Arbeitens

Czech fiction in the twentieth century has been deeply enmeshed in the nation's political life and often serves as a conduit for its authors' social ideas. Through a series of brilliant and powerful readings of major Czech texts in both literature and history, Peter Steiner challenges the view that literary works can be treated as aesthetically distinct from historical events. Instead, he gives evidence again and again of the inevitable connection between literature and politics. Steiner engages six central works ranging from novels to government documents; all, in his view, purvey ideological fictions that have exerted significant social influence. He begins with Jaroslav Hasek's 1920s novel The Good Soldier Svejk, whose anti-authoritarian protagonist was widely emulated during the Nazi and Communist regimes, and ends with Václav Havel's play The Beggar's Opera, through which Steiner explores the social role of Czech writing in the 1970s. He also considers Reportage, by Julius Fucík, which announces itself as a documentary of the Communist Party's heroic struggle against the Germans, but is, for Steiner, a fiction arising out of Marxist-Leninist ideology; Karel Capek's Apocryphal Stories; Milan Kundera's novel The Joke; and the 1952 show trial of Rudolf Slánský, the general secretary of the Communist Party.

Czech Fiction and Its Social Context

The Deserts of Bohemia

Impressive ... A precisely written, carefully plotted novel, all the more dramatic for its understated tone Booklist In a world of growing nationalism, a quiet few are determined to resist. This gripping historical mystery explores the darkest days of the early 20th century. Munich, 1920. Detective Willi Geismeier has a problem: how do you uphold the law when the law goes bad? The First World War has been lost and Germany is in turmoil. The new government in Berlin is weak. The police and courts are corrupt. Fascists and Communists are fighting in the streets. People want a savior, someone who can make Germany great again. To many, Adolf Hitler seems perfect for the job. When the offices of a Munich newspaper are bombed, Willi Geismeier investigates, but as it gets political, he is taken off the case. Willi continues to ask questions, but when his pursuit of the truth itself becomes a crime, his career – and his life – are in grave danger.

The Good Cop

Former Munch detective Willi Geimeiser is a wanted man, now hiding in a cabin deep in the Bavarian forest. But when his friend, Lola, is savagely attacked, Willi rushes back to Munich in disguise and under a new identity - Karl Juncker - determined to find the perpetrator. Can he catch a deranged murderer before the Gestapo catches him?

The Constant Man

Former Munich police detective Willi Geismeier is drawn out of hiding to find a deranged serial killer. Former Munch detective Willi Geimeiser is a wanted man. He sacrificed his career and put his life on the line by exposing a high-ranking Nazi official as a murderer, and is now in hiding in a cabin deep in the Bavarian forest. But when his friend, Lola, is savagely attacked, Willi returns to Munich in disguise and under a new identity - Karl Juncker - determined to find the perpetrator. Meanwhile, the discovery of the body of a woman in the River Isar leads Willi's old colleague and friend, Detective Hans Bergemann, to uncover similar disturbing murders stretching back years. A serial killer who preys on young women is running loose on Munich's streets. Could they be responsible for the attack on Lola, and can Willi catch a deranged murderer before the Gestapo catches him?

Miroslav ?ervenka

Ronald Vroon

These papers on the structure of the literary process were brought together in memory of Felix Vodicka (19091974). Contributions by: Jacek Baluch, Miroslav Cervenka, Kvetoslav Chvatík, E.M. van Dam-Havelková, Sergej Davydov, Lubomir Doleel, Miroslav Drozda, Jan van der Eng, F.W. Galan, Mojmír Grygar, Wolfgang Iser, Milan Jankovic, Hans Robert Jauss, Renate Lachmann, Gail Lenhoff, Ladislav Matejka, Tone Pretnar, Lucylla Pszczolowska, Janice A. Radway, Charles Eric Reeves, Herta Schmid, Milo Sedmidubský, Peter Steiner, Wendy Steiner, Oleg Sus, Ronald Vroon.

Studies Dedicated to the Memory of Felix Vodic?ka

The Structure of the Literary Process

"Czech fiction in the twentieth century has been deeply enmeshed in the nation's political life and often serves as a conduit for its authors' social ideas. Peter Steiner challenges the view that literary works can be treated as aesthetically distinct from historical events. Instead, he gives evidence again and again of the inevitable connection between literature and politics." --Book Jacket.

Charles Wheelan

Based on the author's 2011 Class Day Speech at Dartmouth College, provides humorous and unconventional advice for graduates of all ages on attaining happiness and success in life.

Peter Steiner

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