From the „aesthetic trap” to the „popular trap”

Abstract

The essay critically reflects on the fact that in Czech prose of the 2010s there was an obvious inclination towards works full of literary conventions and pandering to aesthetically undemanding readers. It recalls that one of the first to draw attention to this trend was Jiří Peňás, who, however, inadequately attributed the blame to the so-called ”female writing”. In the paper, Peňás’s opinion is corrected by pointing to similarly problematic works written and published by men in the same period. As one of the main reasons for the current majority renunciation of critical claiming of formally and conceptually unconventional works, the article identifies the inclination of Host, one of the most important Czech publishing houses, which also publishes a representative literary journal of the same name, towards midcult, announced at the turn of the century by Miroslav Balaštík, the leading representative of the publishing house and the journal in question. In the conclusion, it is stressed that Balaštík’s recommendation how to break out of the ”trap of aestheticism” resulted in the acute danger of Czech prose getting stuck in the ”trap of popularism”.