THE CASE OF MICHAL VIEWEGH. POPULAR LITERATURE, CRITIQUE, THERAPY

Michal Viewegh is one of the most popular contemporary Czech writers. He is also known as a very controversial artist and subject of major literary polemics in the Czech Republic in the 90's. In this paper Viewegh's literary output is being analyzed from the point of view of that polemics. The authoress focuses on issues related to aesthetics, i.e. on the aesthetical criteria used by literary critics and on modifications of those criteria as proposed by M. Viewegh. The analysis reveals an important aspect of this critical discussion - the relationship between high and low culture.