19. - 20. století
Jan Mukarovsky
Prominent literary theoretician and representative of Structuralism
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He was a prominent literary theoretician and essayist, the co-founder of the famous Prague Linguistic Circle.
He studied Linguistics at the Charles University before concentrating on various pedagogical activities, mainly as a high-school teacher in Pilsen and Prague. In 1928 he co-founded the Prague Linguistic Circle, which gathered significant Czech and foreign linguists (eg. Roman Jakobson) and he tried to produce a complex revision of modern
linguistics.
During the pre-war and the war period, he was a progressive supporter of the Avant-garde and of Surrealism. But after the Second World War he got involved in favor of the communist party, hence de facto abandoning Surrealism. Thanks to his official stand he became rector of the Charles University in 1948 and left his office in 1953. This fact reflects rather negatively on the otherwise exceptionally interesting linguist.
