Jakub Bart-Ćišinski a dźiwadło młodoserbskeho hibanja

Abstract

Jakub Bart-Ćišinski and the theatre of the Young Sorbian movement

From 1875 an oppositional trend developed amongst Sorbian students, which has gone down in cultural history under the name of the “Young Sorbs”. Their leading representatives were Arnošt Muka, a student of philology in Leipzig, and Jakub Bart-Ćišinski, a student of Catholic theology in Prague. Together they convened the first Schadźowanka, which remains today the traditional annual meeting for students and the young intelligentsia in Lusatia. Theatre soon assumed a central place at these meetings of young Sorbs, as it promoted language and identity. As there was a lack of original Sorbian plays at the beginning, the student Jakub Bart acted between 1878 and 1881 both as an author and translator of dramatic works. His great historical drama, Na Hrodźišću, (On the Castle Ramparts, 1879/80) was followed by adaptations and translations of one German and two Czech comedies for student and village amateur productions. In this way, the later classical writer again filled a gap in the genre structure of Sorbian literature, as he had already done with his short novel, Narodowc a wotrodźenc (Patriot and Renegade, 1879). The young Ćišinski became the first dramatist of his people and in this way stimulated the creation of a national repertoire in its own right.