CAPEK, KAREL

born Jan. 9, 1890, Mal Svatonovice, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary [now in Czech Republic] died Dec. 25, 1938, Prague, Czech. Czech novelist, short-story writer, playwright, and essayist. The son of a country doctor, Capek suffered all his life from a spinal disease, and writing seemed a compensation. He studied philosophy in Prague, Berlin, and Paris and in 1917 settled in Prague as a writer and journalist. From 1907 until well into the 1920s, much of his work was written with his brother Josef, a painter, who illustrated several of Karel's books. Almost all Capek's literary works are inquiries into philosophical ideas. The early short storiesin Zriv hlubiny (with Josef, 1916; The Luminous Depths), Krakonoova zahrada (with Josef, 1918; The Garden of Krakono), and Trapn povdky (1921; in Money and Other Stories, 1929)are mainly concerned with man's efforts to break out of the narrow circle of destiny and grasp ultimate values. Another series of works presents Capek's black utopias, showing how scientific discoveries and technological progress tempt man into titanic rebellions. Thus, in the play R.U.R.: Rossum's Universal Robots (published 1920, performed 1921), a scientist discovers the secret of creating humanlike machines that are more precise and reliable than human beings. Years later the machines dominate the human race and threaten it with extinction, though at the last moment it is saved. For this play Capek invented the word robot, deriving it from the Czech word for forced labour. Other works, following the pattern of R.U.R., include the novel Tovrna na absolutno (1922; The Absolute at Large); Krakatit (1924; An Atomic Phantasy); and Vlka s mloky (1936; The War with the Newts). In another vein, Capek's comic fantasy Ze zivota hmyzu (with Josef, 1921; The Insect Play) satirizes human greed, complacency, and selfishness, emphasizing the relativity of human values and the need to come to terms with life. His faith in democracy made him support his friend Tom Garrigue Masaryk and write a biography of him. The quest for justice inspired most of the stories in Povdky z jedn kapsy and Povdky z druh kapsy (both 1929; published together as Tales from Two Pockets). The problem of identity and the mystery of people's underlying motivations are the theme of Capek's most mature work, a trilogy of novels that together present three aspects of knowledge. Hordubal (1933) contrasts an inarticulate man's awareness of the causes of his actions with the world's incomprehension; Provetron (1934; Meteor) illustrates the subjective causes of objective judgments; and Obycejn zivot (1934; An Ordinary Life) explores the complex layers of personality underlying the self an ordinary man thinks himself to be. The growing threat posed by Nazi Germany to Czechoslovakia's independent existence in the mid-1930s prompted Capek to write several works intended to warn and mobilize his countrymen. The realistic novel Prvni parta (1937; The First Rescue Party) stressed the need for solidarity. In his last plays the appeal became more direct. Bl nemoc (1937; Power and Glory) presented the tragedy of the noble pacifist; and Matka (1938; The Mother) vindicated armed resistance to barbaric invasion.