2nd session of CEFRES in-house seminar
Through the presentation of works in progress, CEFRES’s Seminar aims at raising and discussing issues about methods, approaches or concepts, in a multidisciplinary spirit, allowing everyone to confront her or his own perspectives with the research presented.

Location: CEFRES Library and online (to get the link, write to cefres[@]cefres.cz)
Date: Tuesday, October 14, 2025 at 4:30 pm
Language: English

Speaker: Nina PAPCUNOVÁ (CEFRES / SAS)
Discussant: Eva KRÁSOVÁ (CEFRES / Charles University)

Abstract

Modernism as a literary movement is closely linked to urbanization and the space of cities. Literary texts from this period often depict urban spaces, with natural environments appearing less frequently, often only in opposition to the city. Ecological awareness was not yet fully developed, but the negative effects of industrial progress on the enviroment were becoming noticeable, and were used as a thematic basis for the creation of literary texts. Although texts depicting nature constitute a smaller part of modernist literature, they provide contemporary research with important material on the basis of which it is possible to examine various forms of nature and human attitude towards nature at the beginning of the 20th century. Contemporary literary theories and their increasing focus on the different functions and depictions of nature in literature offer useful tools for researching forms of nature in older literary periods.