On 26-28 February 2015 researchers from Germany, Austria, France, the USA, and the Czech Republic gathered in Plzeň to discuss the phenomenon of loyalty in 19th-century culture and society at the 35th Plzeň Symposium on 19th-Century Issues. This year’s symposium, with the theme “Invisible Loyalty? Austrians, Germans and Czechs in 19th-Century Czech Culture”, was organised by the Institute of Art History, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, and the Institute of Czech Literature, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, in cooperation with the West Bohemian Gallery in Plzeň. The conference was accompanied by an exhibition entitled “The Risk of Loyalty? Austrian, German, and Czech Cultural Loyalties in 19th-Century Czech Art”, prepared by the West Bohemian Gallery in Plzeň in cooperation with the Institute of Art History, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. The West Bohemian Museum in Plzeň also prepared an exhibition to accompany the symposium. A literary evening focusing on Johannes Urzidil’s work Ich bin hinternational took place in the Artamo coffee-house, Čelakovského 5, Plzeň.
Attached file: plzen35.pdf
Attached file: Pozvánka Riziko loyálnosti.pdf
In a general sense we understand loyalty as a phenomenon that enables a society to exist in a given way. In a more specific sense we use this word to describe a relationship based on faithfulness, which we value in family life or among friends, whereas we often reject its collective forms. The interdisciplinary symposium enabled this sociological term to be discussed from the viewpoint of historians, art historians, literary scholars, and musicologists.