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About this product
Product Identifiers
PublisherCornell University Press
ISBN-101501771930
ISBN-139781501771934
eBay Product ID (ePID)14058624852
Product Key Features
Book TitleCzech Manuscripts : Forgery, Translation, and National Myth
Number of Pages276 Pages
LanguageEnglish
TopicEurope / Eastern, European / Eastern (See Also Russian & Former Soviet Union), Russian & Former Soviet Union
Publication Year2023
IllustratorYes
GenreLiterary Criticism, History
AuthorDavid L. Cooper
Book SeriesNiu Series in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies
FormatHardcover
Dimensions
Item Height1.2 in
Item Weight32.1 Oz
Item Length9 in
Item Width6.4 in
Additional Product Features
Intended AudienceTrade
LCCN2022-060660
Dewey Edition23/eng/20230302
TitleLeadingThe
Dewey Decimal491.8/6
SynopsisThe Czech Manuscripts is dedicated to one of the most important literary forgeries on the model of Macpherson's Ossianic poetry. The Queen's Court and Green Mountain Manuscripts, discovered in 1817 and 1818, went on to play an outsized role in the Czech National Revival, functioning as founding texts of the national mythology and serving as sacred works in the long period when they were considered genuine. A successful literary forgery tells a lot about what a culture wants and needs at a particular moment. One fascinating aspect of this story is how a successful fake was able to function in an integral way as part of the Czech cultural revival of the nineteenth century, both because it played to expectations and nationalist values and because it met real cultural needs in many ways better than genuine historical literary works and artefacts. Also fascinating is the vainglorious Václav Hanka, a prolific and dedicated forger who was likely the center of the conspiratorial ring that created the manuscripts and who went on as the librarian of the Czech National Museum to alter a number of others. David Cooper analyzes what made the Manuscripts a convincing imitation of their Serbian and Russian models. He looks at how translation shaped their composition and at the benefit ofexamining them as pseudotranslations, and investigates the quasi-religious rituals and commemorative practices that developed around them. The Czech Manuscripts brings the Czech experience into the broader developments of European history.