| When Nezval referred to Deml as the precursor of Czech Surrealism (Nezval, 1964:41), he thereby implied that Deml's writings displayed some formal features distinctive of the Surrealist poetic system. It was, then, the syntactic level of semiotic processes, which especially interested Nezval. Such literary devices as automatic writing and dream recordings were consequently understood as mere expressions of some sort of gravitation of Deml's codes toward the pragmatic core of Surrealism. The semantic function of his texts remained by and large unrecognized. That was why the semantic aspect of Deml's work, its communicative function within the contextual bonds of syntax and pragmatics were especially examined in this study. The results of the author's research and analysis show that some constituents of Deml's poetic system such as etymologizing and "naming," and a visual metaphor are pertinent not only to Surrealism, but also to the larger system of the Avant-Garde. That includes both Devetsil and Poetism in Czech literature. |
