The thesis attempts to describe the life and work of Jiří Karásek ze Lvovic through an analysis of his lifestyle, i.e. the way in which he organized, embellished and individualized his life. Karásek sought to shape his existence as an artwork, in accordance with the inspirational concepts of the contemporary and antecedent thinkers and artists (e.g. Oscar Wilde, Walter Pater and Maurice Maeterlinck). He accented its integrity and orientation towards beauty. In accord with his aesthetic vision (and his literary work) Karásek conditioned beauty with sadness and pain and attempted to emphasize melancholic beauty, unity in disunion. For that purpose he would accentuate particularly the disintegrative, critical elements, evoking the impression of unsuccessful, self-destructive endeavor to reach life's high ideal. This corresponded with his tragic concept of the artist immolating himself for his Art. I approach Karásek's lifestyle through the use of the terms youth and (eternal) boyhood, which Karásek himself employed as symbols of mournfully beautiful existence in his literary work. I define a youth - in accordance with the romantic and symbolist interpretation - as a person at odds with reality (contemporary truths, customs and rules), a solitary, unique being, trying to construct a new world - only...

The subject of this thesis is a characterisation of key motivic units in lyrical works of Jaroslav Vrchlický and Jiří Karásek ze Lvovic, thus it explores Czech parnassian and decadent poetry of the end of 19th century. It observes and traces literal, esthetical and thought shifts of both authors from the aspect of various motives usage. The thesis is divided into five chapters, each of them dealing with one specific motivic unit. The chapters are: 1. Motives of woman, body and sexuality. 2. Motives of dream, imaginary and escape. 3. Motives of dying, disease and decay. 4. Motives of depressiveness, grief, bitterness and vanity. 5. Motives of nature and landscape. Each chapter compares these motives, examines their usage by both authors and looks at how their form and expression undergo a process of certain changes. It also focuses on those motives that appear as completely new elements in their poetry. The conclusion provides with brief summaries of all chapters and a short look through frequency word dictionary of relevant volumes of poems.