Jirí Weil
Encyclopedia
Jiří Weil was a Czech writer. He was Jewish. His noted works include the two novels Life with a Star (Život s hvězdou), and Mendelssohn Is on the Roof (Na střeše je Mendelssohn), as well as many short stories, and other novels.
he was summoned for deportation to a concentration camp, but escaped and went into hiding for the remainder of World War II
. In 1949 he wrote Life with a Star about Jewish life in Prague before the transports. He died in Prague in 1959.
, a village about 40 kilometers outside Prague on August 6, 1900. He was the second son born to upper-middle-class Orthodox Jewish
parents. Weil graduated from secondary school in 1919. As a student he had already begun writing mainly verses, but had also begun planning his three-part novel, Mesto, which he planned to publish under the pseudonym, Jiri Wilde. Upon graduation, Weil was accepted to Charles University in Prague
where he entered the Department of Philosophy and also studied Slavic
philology
and comparative literature
. He completed his doctoral dissertation, "Gogol
and the English Novel of the 18th Century", in 1928.
In 1921, Weil joined the Young Communists and eventually attained a position of leadership in the group. He had a keen interest in Russian literature
and Soviet
culture. About that same time, his first articles were published about cultural life in the Soviet Union in the Newspaper “Rudé Právo
.” He also became one of the first translators of contemporary Russian literature into the Czech language
and translated works by Boris Pasternak
, Vladimir Lugovskoy
and Marina Tsvetaeva
. He was the first person to translate the works of Vladimir Mayakovsky
into Czech. His aim in bringing post-1917 Soviet literature to the Czech people was to increase awareness of the cultural significance of the Revolution
.
In 1922, Weil traveled for the first time with a youth delegation to the Soviet Union. The trip inspired him to write the cultural history, “Busta basnikova”. Weil worked in Moscow
from 1933 to 1935 as a journalist and translator of mainly Marxist literature and worked for Comintern
, a publisher of foreign-language texts for the Communist reader. In this capacity, he helped translate Vladimir Lenin
’s “The State and Revolution” into Czech. After the 1934 assassination of Sergei Kirov, a protégé of Joseph Stalin
accused of conspiring with Leon Trotsky
to wrest control of the party, Weil found himself on very shaky ground in Moscow and in the Communist party. He was expelled from the Communist Party and exiled to Central Asia
. The circumstances of his involvement with the conspiracy and his subsequent deportation to Central Asia have never been fully explained, but these experiences marked a turning point for Weil. He set aside all political aspiration and affiliations and focused on his writing.
In 1935, Weil returned to Prague, and by 1938 was working at the Jewish Museum in Prague
. After the Munich Agreement
was signed in 1938, heralding trouble for Europe’s Jewish population, friends of Weil’s arranged for him to flee to England, but he couldn’t bring himself to leave. World War II
experiences resulted in many Jewish themes emerging in his writing.
Weil was called to a transport in November 1942, but he decided not to go, settling rather on staging his own death by pretending to commit suicide. Weil survived the rest of the war by hiding in various illegal apartments, with several acquaintances and even spent time hiding in a hospital. Despite the tremendous hardship, Weil continued to write. After the war, Weil reintegrated into cultural life and from 1946 to 1948, he edited the literary magazine, “Literarni noviny”. In 1948, Weil lost his position at the press that published the magazine and the press was nationalized.
From 1948 on, Weil began focusing more on the Jewish themes he had already begun exploring in his work. His book Life with a Star, published without fanfare in 1948, is probably his best-known work. It received varying critical attention, but a firestorm of controversy over it erupted in 1951. Critics decried it as “decadent”, “existentialist”, “highly subjective” and “the product of a cowardly culture.” It was roundly criticized from both an ideological
and a religious
standpoint and was banned. Undeterred, Weil worked continuously until his death from cancer in 1959. In recent years, Weil's "Star" is considered a classic. According to Philip Roth (who was largely responsible for introducing Weil to American readers) the book is "without a doubt, one of the outstanding novels I've read about the fate of a Jew under the Nazis. I don't know another like it." Michiko Kakutani adds that it is "one of the most powerful works to emerge from the Holocaust: it is a fierce and necessary work of art." And Siri Hustvedt
has written ; "When I mention this astounding novel to people, I am almost always met with blankness. It may be that its subject matter, the Nazi occupation
of Prague, is grim. I don't know. What I do know is that I read the book when it came out - (the English translation, published in 1989, 40 years after its first publication in Czechoslovakia) - and it burned itself into me. The words German, Nazi and Jew never appear. There is nothing coy about these omissions. They are essential to the novel's uncanny immediacy, its urgent telling of a human story which, despite its particularity, refuses to locate itself in the past."
Beyond "Star" and "Mendelssohn" Weil's fiction is woefully underrepresented in English-language translations. A limited edition of "Colors," was recently available through University of Missouri Press but it is already out of print. At this time, "Moscu-Frontera" (Moscow Border) and "Leben mit dem Stern" remain untranslated in English.
The 110th anniversary of the birth of Jiří Weil is reminded by premiere of concert performance of a ballet "MAKANNA" written by Czech composer and organist Irena Kosíková; based on his novel MAKANNA. Concert "MAKANNA" feature Jan Židlický - narrator, Czech cellist František Brikcius and Talich Chamber Orchestra conducted by Maestro Jan Talich. "MAKANNA" is held under the auspices of Sir Tom Stoppard and Václav Havel to commemorate the 110th anniversary of the birth of Jiří Weil (1900-1959) and as part of the "Daniel Pearl World Music Days". In the cooperation with the National Gallery, the Jewish Museum in Prague, the Talich Chamber Orchestra and the City of Prague.
Life and work
In 1942, like all Jews in PraguePrague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
he was summoned for deportation to a concentration camp, but escaped and went into hiding for the remainder of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. In 1949 he wrote Life with a Star about Jewish life in Prague before the transports. He died in Prague in 1959.
Biography
Jiří Weil was born in PraskolesyPraskolesy (Beroun District)
Praskolesy is a village in Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has around 800 inhabitants....
, a village about 40 kilometers outside Prague on August 6, 1900. He was the second son born to upper-middle-class Orthodox Jewish
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
parents. Weil graduated from secondary school in 1919. As a student he had already begun writing mainly verses, but had also begun planning his three-part novel, Mesto, which he planned to publish under the pseudonym, Jiri Wilde. Upon graduation, Weil was accepted to Charles University in Prague
Charles University in Prague
Charles University in Prague is the oldest and largest university in the Czech Republic. Founded in 1348, it was the first university in Central Europe and is also considered the earliest German university...
where he entered the Department of Philosophy and also studied Slavic
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
philology
Philology
Philology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...
and comparative literature
Comparative literature
Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the literature of two or more different linguistic, cultural or national groups...
. He completed his doctoral dissertation, "Gogol
Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol was a Ukrainian-born Russian dramatist and novelist.Considered by his contemporaries one of the preeminent figures of the natural school of Russian literary realism, later critics have found in Gogol's work a fundamentally romantic sensibility, with strains of Surrealism...
and the English Novel of the 18th Century", in 1928.
In 1921, Weil joined the Young Communists and eventually attained a position of leadership in the group. He had a keen interest in Russian literature
Russian literature
Russian literature refers to the literature of Russia or its émigrés, and to the Russian-language literature of several independent nations once a part of what was historically Russia or the Soviet Union...
and Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
culture. About that same time, his first articles were published about cultural life in the Soviet Union in the Newspaper “Rudé Právo
Rudé právo
Rudé právo was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia....
.” He also became one of the first translators of contemporary Russian literature into the Czech language
Czech language
Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
and translated works by Boris Pasternak
Boris Pasternak
Boris Leonidovich Pasternak was a Russian language poet, novelist, and literary translator. In his native Russia, Pasternak's anthology My Sister Life, is one of the most influential collections ever published in the Russian language...
, Vladimir Lugovskoy
Vladimir Lugovskoy
Vladimir Alexandrovich Lugovsky was a constructivist poet. In later years, his poetry became filled with imagery and emotion.-References:...
and Marina Tsvetaeva
Marina Tsvetaeva
Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva was a Russian and Soviet poet. Her work is considered among some of the greatest in twentieth century Russian literature. She lived through and wrote of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the Moscow famine that followed it. In an attempt to save her daughter Irina from...
. He was the first person to translate the works of Vladimir Mayakovsky
Vladimir Mayakovsky
Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky was a Russian and Soviet poet and playwright, among the foremost representatives of early-20th century Russian Futurism.- Early life :...
into Czech. His aim in bringing post-1917 Soviet literature to the Czech people was to increase awareness of the cultural significance of the Revolution
Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...
.
In 1922, Weil traveled for the first time with a youth delegation to the Soviet Union. The trip inspired him to write the cultural history, “Busta basnikova”. Weil worked in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
from 1933 to 1935 as a journalist and translator of mainly Marxist literature and worked for Comintern
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
, a publisher of foreign-language texts for the Communist reader. In this capacity, he helped translate Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
’s “The State and Revolution” into Czech. After the 1934 assassination of Sergei Kirov, a protégé of Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
accused of conspiring with Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
to wrest control of the party, Weil found himself on very shaky ground in Moscow and in the Communist party. He was expelled from the Communist Party and exiled to Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
. The circumstances of his involvement with the conspiracy and his subsequent deportation to Central Asia have never been fully explained, but these experiences marked a turning point for Weil. He set aside all political aspiration and affiliations and focused on his writing.
In 1935, Weil returned to Prague, and by 1938 was working at the Jewish Museum in Prague
Jewish Museum in Prague
The Jewish Museum in Prague is a museum of Jewish heritage located in Prague, Czech Republic.The Jewish Museum in Prague was founded in 1906 by historian Dr. Hugo Lieben and Dr. Augustin Stein, who later became head of the Prague Jewish Community...
. After the Munich Agreement
Munich Agreement
The Munich Pact was an agreement permitting the Nazi German annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. The Sudetenland were areas along Czech borders, mainly inhabited by ethnic Germans. The agreement was negotiated at a conference held in Munich, Germany, among the major powers of Europe without...
was signed in 1938, heralding trouble for Europe’s Jewish population, friends of Weil’s arranged for him to flee to England, but he couldn’t bring himself to leave. World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
experiences resulted in many Jewish themes emerging in his writing.
Weil was called to a transport in November 1942, but he decided not to go, settling rather on staging his own death by pretending to commit suicide. Weil survived the rest of the war by hiding in various illegal apartments, with several acquaintances and even spent time hiding in a hospital. Despite the tremendous hardship, Weil continued to write. After the war, Weil reintegrated into cultural life and from 1946 to 1948, he edited the literary magazine, “Literarni noviny”. In 1948, Weil lost his position at the press that published the magazine and the press was nationalized.
From 1948 on, Weil began focusing more on the Jewish themes he had already begun exploring in his work. His book Life with a Star, published without fanfare in 1948, is probably his best-known work. It received varying critical attention, but a firestorm of controversy over it erupted in 1951. Critics decried it as “decadent”, “existentialist”, “highly subjective” and “the product of a cowardly culture.” It was roundly criticized from both an ideological
Ideology
An ideology is a set of ideas that constitutes one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to...
and a religious
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
standpoint and was banned. Undeterred, Weil worked continuously until his death from cancer in 1959. In recent years, Weil's "Star" is considered a classic. According to Philip Roth (who was largely responsible for introducing Weil to American readers) the book is "without a doubt, one of the outstanding novels I've read about the fate of a Jew under the Nazis. I don't know another like it." Michiko Kakutani adds that it is "one of the most powerful works to emerge from the Holocaust: it is a fierce and necessary work of art." And Siri Hustvedt
Siri Hustvedt
Siri Hustvedt is an American novelist and essayist. Hustvedt is the author of a book of poetry, five novels, two books of essays, and a work of non-fiction...
has written ; "When I mention this astounding novel to people, I am almost always met with blankness. It may be that its subject matter, the Nazi occupation
German occupation of Czechoslovakia
German occupation of Czechoslovakia began with the Nazi annexation of Czechoslovakia's northern and western border regions, known collectively as the Sudetenland, under terms outlined by the Munich Agreement. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's pretext for this effort was the alleged privations suffered by...
of Prague, is grim. I don't know. What I do know is that I read the book when it came out - (the English translation, published in 1989, 40 years after its first publication in Czechoslovakia) - and it burned itself into me. The words German, Nazi and Jew never appear. There is nothing coy about these omissions. They are essential to the novel's uncanny immediacy, its urgent telling of a human story which, despite its particularity, refuses to locate itself in the past."
Beyond "Star" and "Mendelssohn" Weil's fiction is woefully underrepresented in English-language translations. A limited edition of "Colors," was recently available through University of Missouri Press but it is already out of print. At this time, "Moscu-Frontera" (Moscow Border) and "Leben mit dem Stern" remain untranslated in English.
The 110th anniversary of the birth of Jiří Weil is reminded by premiere of concert performance of a ballet "MAKANNA" written by Czech composer and organist Irena Kosíková; based on his novel MAKANNA. Concert "MAKANNA" feature Jan Židlický - narrator, Czech cellist František Brikcius and Talich Chamber Orchestra conducted by Maestro Jan Talich. "MAKANNA" is held under the auspices of Sir Tom Stoppard and Václav Havel to commemorate the 110th anniversary of the birth of Jiří Weil (1900-1959) and as part of the "Daniel Pearl World Music Days". In the cooperation with the National Gallery, the Jewish Museum in Prague, the Talich Chamber Orchestra and the City of Prague.
Work
- Ruská revoluční literatura, 1924
- Kulturní práce sovětského Ruska, 1924
- Češi stavějí v zemi pětiletek, 1937
- Moskva-hranice, 1937
- Makanna, otec divů, 1946.
- Barvy, 1946
- Vzpomínky na Julia Fučíka, 1947
- Life with a Star, 1949
- Mír, 1949
- Vězeň chillonský, 1957
- Harfeník, 1958
- Žalozpěv za 77 297 obětí, 1958
- Na střeše je Mendelssohn, 1960
- Hodina pravdy, hodina zkoušky, 1966
- Moskva-Hranice, 1991
- Dřevěná lžíce, 1992
Sources
- Translated and condensed from "Die juedische Thematik in Werk Jiri Weils" Magisterarbeit von Andrea Daniela Schutte, 2004, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Bonn, Philosophischen Fakultät , Digitale Osteuropa-Bibliothek: Sprache und Kultur 1