Lecture 'Švejk and His Transformation. The Last Hero of Austro-Hungary'

THIS MATERIAL (INFORMATION) WAS PRODUCED BY THE FOREIGN AGENT BYKOV DMITRY LVOVICH, CONTAINED IN THE REGISTER OF FOREIGN MASS MEDIA FUNDS CARRYING OUT THE FUNCTIONS OF A FOREIGN AGENT, DATED 29.07.2022.

The main war novel of the 20th century is rightfully considered to be "The Adventures of the Good Soldier Švejk"—a story set against the backdrop of the First World War, which at the time was still simply the one and only world war. Švejk’s adventures in this conflict resemble an unusual fusion of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, Uilenspiegel and Lammé: it brings together both the image of a merry vagabond trickster and the shadow of his somewhat simple-minded companion.

As work on the book progressed, it seems that Gашek’s attitude toward his character also changed: Švejk gradually stopped being merely a comic bungler and became one of the key symbols of the "mass man" of the 20th century. It is this transformation—how a cutting, cynical farce grows into one of the most important manifestos of human dignity—that will be the subject of our discussion.