karel čapek

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PhDr. Karel  Čapek (January 9, 1890,Malé Svatoňovice – 25 December 1938, Prague) was a Czech writer, intellectual, journalist, playwright, translator and photographer.

His literary work began before the First World War, together with his brother Josef, who was primarily a painter. A great influence on his work had his philosophical and aesthetic education, especially expressionism and pragmatism. Čapek was also greatly influenced by the scientific revolution and in many parts of his work he expressed concern that one day technique gains power over man.

A typical characteristic of his work is the use of large vocabulary and unusual words. Čapek could make use of the Czech language and its peculiarities very well.

Biography

After graduation, he worked briefly as a tutor in a noble family, but soon he switched to journalism. Čaper worked as an editor for several magazines: Nárdoní listy, Nebojsa and Lidové noviny. He left Lidové noviny in 1921 as  protest against the exclusion of his brother from the editors and against the political (anti-Masaryk) direction of the sheet. After he was director and dramaturge in Vinohrady Theatre. In the years 1925-1933 he was the first chairman of the Czech PEN club. In 1935 he married his long-time girlfriend and actress Olga Scheinpflugová.

The Munich Agreement and the following surrender of Czechoslovakia meant for Karel Čapek collapse of his current world and personal tragedy.

“It seems to me that I have nothing to do here, I would be a ridiculous figure, my world died, because I believed in some sort of commitment, in so-called honour of the contract and things like that…”

After recovery from the initial shock, he tried to justify the government and the president’s actions. According to Čapek, there was no other acceptable solution. 

He tried to stop activities dividing the nation. After the abdication of President Beneš, he was the only visible symbol of the First Republic  and often played the role of “scapegoat”. He received numerous insulting letters and anonymous phone calls. Čapek responded to the attack on his person in the newspapers and kept trying to explain his activities. The last three years of his life he spent in the Stará Huť in Dobříš. He died of a pulmonary edema, a few months before Gestapo could arrest him. He was buried at the Vyšehrad cemetery in Prague. 

An individualistic approach is applied in his works, which results in recognition of strong individuals and accepting an unique truth (but only the truth from the perspective of the individual). Čapek was also very much influenced by the First World War and later the upcoming World War II.

 Interesting facts:

  • Čapek was extremely good amateur photographer (photos in famous novel for children Dášenka or portraits of famous personalities).
  • The authorship of the word “robot”, which was thanks to the theatre play RUR spread throughout the world, is actually ascribed to his brother Josef, who advised him to use that world. Karel Čapek originally thought about the word “laboř”. The word robot is of Slavic origin, formed from the verb robotovat (to work).
  • He was nominated seven times for the Nobel Prize in Literature

His work is very broad, and so for practical reasons, we divide it into two parts:

  • the part dealing with the inner life of man as an individual and through which Čapek attempts to explore the possibilities and limits of human knowledge, the multiplicity of views of reality, dealing with Noetics 
  • utopian part – utopian novels and dramas in which Čapek criticizes social problems throughout modern society, there is often expressed fear of abuse of technology against humans and in some parts is also apparent fear from the emerging fascism. For these works were both Čapek brothers often regarded as a precursors of sci-fi literature.

His journalism is very interesting. Journalism gave him a variety of creative ideas and influenced the internal organization of his literary works, its language, style, but also the look and shape. It must be said that his work was greatly influenced the traditional and newly developed journalism departments.

His work in print is associated primarily with Lidové newspapers (“Lidové noviny”). Čapek wrote a large number of columns, where he commented on the current problems.

Due to his friendship with T. G, Masaryk, whom he greatly respected, Čapek wrote very pro-masaryk and became something like an official journalist of the Castle.