The problem of the differentiation of criticism and art in the literary system of late 18th century Bohemia

Starting with the traditional dichotomy of two views of the relation between criticism and art - "criticism as art" and "criticism based on detachment" - this study seeks to show both standpoints to be part of a single complex of issues and tensions associated with the functional differentiation within literary communication at the turn of 18th and 19th century. This approach is based on Niklas Luhmann’s system theory, applied (with something of a twist) by Siegfried Schmidt to literature. After introducing the problem of functional differentiation within the literary system in Bohemia, the study presents many different historical conceptions of the relation of art and criticism observable in discussions at the turn of 18th and 19th century in Bohemia. I then focus on the notion of "genius" in these discussions, which played an important role in the development of the concept of "criticism as art". In the following three parts, the study investigates the differentiation of critical praxis: the genesis of "artistic criticism" characterized by hermeneutics and its form-reflecting approach, and the ongoing usage of artistic genres in criticism. The last part focuses on a specific critical genre of the period, the satirical vision, and its transformation as a consequence of the differentiation of the literary system.