German literature and culture in Moravian Wallachia as the research object of literary germanistics: background, goals and methodology

Abstract

The paper presents a description of German literature and culture in Moravian Wallachia as the research object of literary Germanistics. It provides an outline of research methodology, significant literary topics and author personalities originating in the given area in the period of the second half of 19(th) century and the first half of the 20(th) century. Wallachia is seen as a distinctive multicultural area including both, the Czech culture and also significant traces of the German and Jewish cultural elements. It is viewed as a spiritual space manifesting a number of conflicting tendencies and paradoxes. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, Wallachia is considered a laboratory of multiculturalism, in which modern European cultural movements, their influence on regional conditions, and regional impulses later expanding into European cultural centers were tested at the beginning of the 20(th) century. Wallachia was a bastion of conservatism but also a terrain suitable for possible cultural experiments. It is thus an epitome of cultural hybridity.