Vítězslav Hálek (born April 5, 1835 in Dolínek near Mělník; and died October 8, 1874 in Prague) was a Czech poet, writer, playwright and journalist.
To live
Hálek, together with Jan Neruda, Jakub Arbes, Adolf Heyduk and Rudolf Mayer, was a representative of the so-called Májovci, with whom a new era of Czech literature began and of which he was the spokesperson. He already wrote poems when he was in high school in Prague. After graduating from the philosophy faculty of Charles University in Prague, he devoted himself exclusively to literature and journalism. The focus of his work was lyric poetry. His collections Evening Songs (Večerní písně) and In Nature (V přírodě) are among the foundations of Bohemian poetry of the 19th century.
Particularly realistic were his stories and novellas, which focused on Prague subjects and village stories, as well as his journalistic work. As editor of the national newspaper (Národní listy) he wrote hundreds of political, literary articles, theater reviews and travel reports. He was involved in the Almanac of the First of May (May 1858) and edited his own yearbooks. Hálek was co-editor of the magazines Flowers (Květy) and Lumír.
He was active in the Artistic Discussion Group (Umělecká beseda), the center of the cultural and social life of his time. After his death, the Májovci group fell apart and the new generations of Ruchovci and Lumírovci took center stage.
Majovci
Májovci was a group of authors who promoted the flourishing of Czech literature after 1848. The name is derived from the poem Máj by Karel Hynek Mácha. In 1858 the first almanac was published, in which Vítězslav Hálek, Jan Neruda, Adolf Heyduk, Rudolf Mayer, Karolina Světlá, Jakub Arbes, Karel Sabina, Josef Václav Frič and Gustav Pfleger-Moravský participated. After Hálek's death in 1874, the group was disbanded. Afterwards, the literary scene was dominated by the opponents Ruchovci and Lumírovci.
The Májovci program consisted of Macha's legacy and his revolutionary romanticism and paved the way for realism. They campaigned for democracy and promoted global citizenship. According to Májovci's ideas, literature should also deal with social issues such as how to deal with technical progress, the position of women and the social responsibility of the individual. Further goals were to raise Bohemian literature to a level comparable to other European literature and especially to publish works.
Works by Vítězslav Hálek
Spring songs (Večerní písně). Poems. 1859
The Carter (Převozník). German from?. Furche-Verlag 1964
The heirs of the White Mountain. Hymn. Music 1872: Antonín Dvořák
In nature (V přírodě). Poems. 1872-1874
Fairy tales from our village (Pohádky z naší vesnice). 1874
Monument A monument in honor of Vítězslav Hálek is located in front of the New Town Town Hall on Charles Square in Prague's New Town. In his birthplace Dolínek near Mělník there is an obelisk and the grave, which is also decorated with a memorial stone.
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