Center for Literary Research, Prague
Center for Literary Research (Institut pro studium literatury, IPSL) pursues research, educational and publicational activities, aiming at cultivating the knowledge and appreciation of literature. Its founding was instigated by a group of Czech literary scholars in 2010. Its main goal is to transcend the limits of a narrowly defined circle of specialists and to stimulate an interest in a considered reception of literary works in broader society.
The Center is focused on research and education in theory as well as history and criticism of literature, and on the publication of original as well as translated titles on the pertinent issues. The Center emphasizes procedural honesty, including scholarly treatment of the archives, bibliographies, literary history and editions of texts as well as an anchoring in theory, while simultaneously demanding an individually personal interpretive input. The Center’s aims also encompass transdisciplinary research devoted to an integral analysis of a given phenomenon, such as the ideas of an individual author or the character of a period in our cultural history.
The Center puts a particular emphasis on aesthetic literary criticism and other forms of considerate response that crystallize and co-determine the realities and possibilities of the literary craft. Another important area of interest is the impact of individuals whose works and activities belong into several mutually linked social and national contexts, as is the case of, e.g., German and Jewish authors residing in the Czech lands or of Czechs residing abroad.
The Organizational Structure
Center for Literary Research is a non-profit public interest organization. It is overseen by a six-member Managing Board, composed of prominent Czech literary scholars, and a three-member Supervisory Board, composed of experts in law, economics, and the non-profit sector. For details see here.
Annual Reports
The Center releases annual reports in Czech (available here).
