Karel Capek - Vysehrad Slavin Cemetery (Prague, Czech Republic)
N 50° 03.893 E 014° 25.107
33U E 458378 N 5546006
Tomb of one of the most influential Czech writers of 20th century, Karel Capek, you can find in the Czech national burial ground - Slavín cemetery in Prague - Vyšehrad.
Waymark Code: WMJ3G4
Location: Hlavní město Praha, Czechia
Date Posted: 09/17/2013
Views: 52
Tomb of one of the most influential Czech writers of 20th century, Karel Capek, you can find in the Czech national burial ground - Slavín cemetery in Prague - Vyšehrad.
Karel Capek, (January 9th, 1890 - December 25th, 1938), was Czech novelist, short-story writer, playwright, and essayist. Capek studied philosophy in Prague, Berlin, and Paris and in 1917 settled in Prague as a writer and journalist.
Almost all Capek’s literary works are inquiries into philosophical ideas. The early short stories — in Zárivé hlubiny (with brother Josef, 1916; "The Luminous Depths"), Krakonošova zahrada (with brother Josef, 1918; "The Garden of Krakonoš"), and Trapné povídky (1921; in "Money and Other Stories", 1929) — are mainly concerned with man’s efforts to break out of the narrow circle of destiny and grasp ultimate values. Another series of works presents Capek’s "black utopias," showing how scientific discoveries and technological progress tempt man into titanic rebellions. Thus, in the play "R.U.R.: Rossum’s Universal Robots" (published 1920, performed 1921), a scientist discovers the secret of creating humanlike machines that are more precise and reliable than human beings. Years later the machines dominate the human race and threaten it with extinction, though at the last moment it is saved. For this play Capek invented the word "robot," deriving it from the Czech word for forced labour.
Other works, following the pattern of R.U.R., include the novel Továrna na absolutno (1922; "The Absolute at Large"); Krakatit (1924; An Atomic Phantasy); and Válka s mloky (1936; "The War with the Newts").
In another vein, Capek’s comic fantasy Ze života hmyzu (with brother Josef, 1921; "The Insect Play") satirizes human greed, complacency, and selfishness, emphasizing the relativity of human values and the need to come to terms with life. His faith in democracy made him support his friend Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and write a biography of him. The quest for justice inspired most of the stories in Povídky z jedné kapsy and Povídky z druhé kapsy (both 1929; published together as "Tales from Two Pockets").
The problem of identity and the mystery of people’s underlying motivations are the theme of Capek’s most mature work, a trilogy of novels that together present three aspects of knowledge. Hordubal (1933) contrasts an inarticulate man’s awareness of the causes of his actions with the world’s incomprehension; Povetron (1934; "Meteor") illustrates the subjective causes of objective judgments; and Obycejný život (1934; "An Ordinary Life") explores the complex layers of personality underlying the "self” an “ordinary" man thinks himself to be.
The growing threat posed by Nazi Germany to Czechoslovakia’s independent existence in the mid-1930s prompted Capek to write several works intended to warn and mobilize his countrymen. The realistic novel Prvni parta (1937; "The First Rescue Party") stressed the need for solidarity. In his last plays the appeal became more direct. Bílá nemoc (1937; "Power and Glory") presented the tragedy of the noble pacifist; and Matka (1938; "The Mother") vindicated armed resistance to barbaric invasion.
[from Brittanica]