Under the whip (not just the love whip)

Abstract

In his study Ivo Harák deals with poetic work of Jan Zahradníček, one of the most remarkable representatives of Czech spiritual lyrics of 20th century. Harák gives a comprehensive analysis of Zahradníček´s poetry collections – using knowledge of the most significant secondary sources concerning Zahradníček´s production. It attempts to trace the development line of Zahradníček’s work from the author’s top collections of the second half of the 1930s to the last collection published during World War II, Pod bičem milostným. In doing so, he points to thought and formable dominants that are repeated, varied and deepened in Z.’s work, but also to problematic areas of Zahradníček’s poetry (with an effort to reveal the motivation of creative changes). Here, Harák also follows up on the attention he paid to similar authors (Ivan Slavík, Vladimír Vokolek, Josef Suchý and Zdeněk Rotrekl) and to Jan Zahradníček himself (whose previous development he captured in the study K slavení já však zrozen jsem).