Interview with Xavier Galmiche on the publication of two books in Czech: Le Poulailler métaphysique (Revolver Revue, 2023) and Znaky a přízraky (Karolinum, 2023).
Date: 6th December, 2023, from 6.p.m.
Location: French Institute in Prague, Štěpánská 644/35, 110 00 Nové Město, Prague.
Language: French and Czech (simultaneous translation)
Partners of the event: CEFRES, French Institute in Prague, Charles University and Karolinum Press
Chair: Mateusz Chmurski, director of CEFRES, associate professor in Polish & Central European literature at Sorbonne University.
Discussant: Xavier Galmiche, Professor of Czech and Central European Literature and History at Sorbonne University.
Xavier Galmiche is Professor of Czech and Central European Literature and History at Faculty of Arts at the Sorbonne University. He is also a translator (J. A. Komenský, K. H. Mácha, J. Weil, B. Hrabal, J. Vladislav, etc.).
Laureate of the Premia Bohemica Prize awarded by the Moravian Library in Brno since 2020 for his works, he is a poet and prose writer.
This meeting will give us the opportunity to review the release of two of his books in Czech:
Le Poulailler métaphysique, an autobiographical text, at the crossroads of diary, philosophical meditation and prose poem (rewarded with “Prix Décembre 2021”), published by Revolver Revue in Jean-Gaspard Páleníček’s translation.
Znaky a přízraky (Signs & Spectres), to be published by Karolinum.
Editorial Note
Signs and Spectres. Selected Essays on Czech and Central European Literature comprises thirty-eight essays by Xavier Galmiche written between 2000 and 2022 and published in various academic press, conference or thematic proceedings and periodicals, as accompanying texts in books of selected Czech literature, or as contributions in collective monographs. Many of them were written with a foreign audience in mind, which is why the author introduces facts well-known to Czech readers in them. Approximately half of the texts included in this volume have so far been published only in the original language, i.e., in French or German—these have been translated into Czech by Karolinum Press for the purposes of this edition. As for the remaining texts, existing Czech or Slovak translations have been used, with slight modifications made to them and obvious factual errors and contradictions corrected. These are not marked in the text. The collection of essays is structured by topic, with the texts within the individual sections arranged chronologically (in relation to the subject of each text). Printed for the first time ever, the volume includes an interview conducted by Jiří Pelán with the author of the book that focuses in on the biographical, pedagogical, translation and research curriculum of Xavier Galmiche. The interview, originally conducted in French, has been translated into English by Jiří Pelán, who also affixed it with footnotes. Signs and Spectres will be the seventh title published in the Czech Studies Abroad series.
For bibliographic information on the individual essays and other information of a technical nature, see below. In recording this information, we have relied on the author’s bibliography from 2020 compiled and published by the Moravian Library in Brno on the occasion of the awarding of the Premia Bohemica prize to the author. We have supplemented and corrected the bibliography in a few places.
Throughout the volume, we have unified the method of citation and referencing. In several texts, we have omitted superfluous explanations relating to phenomena (Devětsil) or authors (Jakub Deml) commonly known to the Czech reader. In the footnotes, we have also left out information on published translations of Czech literature into German and French relevant in the respective language regions. By contrast, in many places we have added the French version of the quoted passages, something that was not present in the texts when originally published. We have not edited the inevitable repetitions of phrasing or parts of paragraphs across the individual essays. All texts have been revised and, in several places, slightly modified by the author.
Read and download the complete editorial note and the content of the volume here.