Тhe urban theme in the proletarian poetry of Czech poet J. Hory

Abstract

The article examines the basic principles of depicting the urban theme in the proletarian poetry of the Czech writer J. Hory. Four collections were selected for analysis, written in line with the proletarian trend: “A Tree in bloom”, “Working Day”, “The Heart and Chaos of the world”, “Stormy Spring”. The peculiarities of showing the image of the city in each collection are noted. The poems show the same motives (military and revolutionary), which are intertwined with the urban theme in the poet’s work. A comparison of four collections of proletarian poetry made it possible to trace the evolution in the display of urban space and outline changes in the author’s attitude to the city: at the beginning of his work J. Hora admires the large-scale development of cities, but at the end of the proletarian period, the writer feels the destruction and absorption of the human personality by urban space.