Pavla Machalíková – Tomáš Winter
The Birth of Country Folk
The decisive factor in the choice of theme for the interdisciplinary Pilsen Symposium
in 2019 was topicality. The issue of nascent country folk in nineteenth-century Czech
culture touches not only the past. Taking into consideration the specific phenomena
included and the layers of associations aroused, there are strong resonances in the
present. The concept “folk” presents an interdisciplinary theme that can be grasped
by different disciplines from different points of view.
Folk are, as a rule, considered to be a particular type of society whose nature is
determined by a common language, culture or history. In the nineteenth century
the folk were often associated with the middle and lower classes, or simply with
the traditional rural population. In this way village people were often identified
with the nation. Moreover, the countryside was an environment distinct from the town,
mythologised from antiquity and at the same time connected to the “golden age”
of mankind, which was projected into the way country folk were perceived.
In the Bohemian Lands, as elsewhere in Europe, a highly stereotypical image of
the nature, bearers and meaning of the phenomenon of folk culture was gradually
created. On the other hand, the artistic reflection of traditional rural visual culture and
artistic work connected to the indisputably specific visual appearance of the countryside
shows what a range of inspiration this environment offered. It seems that in the case
of this theme, nationalist concepts were quite often mixed up with theories about
the origin and nature of authentic artistic work, and that these reinforced each other.
As a consequence, a conglomeration of frequently incompatible ideas and opinions
emerged which resulted in not only the long lasting attractiveness of the “folk” and
“rural” theme at an artistic level, but also its misuse for emotionally formulated
requirements of national society, including those of the present day.
design by Bedřich Vémola
