Růžena Dostálová (22 April 1924 – 18 August 2014) was a Czech

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of ...

, historian, literary historian, translator and leading

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

scholar.

Life and education

Dostálová was born in

Bratislava Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...

on 22 April 1924. Between 1945 and 1950, Dostálová studied classical

philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...

at the Faculty of Arts of the Charles University, studying

modern Greek Modern Greek (, or , ), generally referred to by speakers simply as Greek (, ), refers collectively to the dialects of the Greek language spoken in the modern era, including the official standardized form of the language sometimes referred to ...

from 1949 until 1952. In 1952, at the same university, she defended her dissertation on the Greek novel about Nino on papyrus fragments and was awarded the title of PhDr. In 1959, she was awarded a CSc. Dostálová died in Prague on 18 August 2014.

Career

After university, Dostálová worked at the

Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences The Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (Czech: ''Československá akademie věd'', Slovak: ''Česko-slovenská akadémia vied'') was established in 1953 to be the scientific center for Czechoslovakia. It was succeeded by the Czech Academy of Science ...

. In 1993, she researched Byzantine and Modern Greek philology for her

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...

at Charles University, and in 1996 she was appointed associate

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

in the field of

classical philology Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek and Roman literature and their original languages, ...

. As an author and editor she translated Byzantine literature, and wrote the Byzantine and Greek chapters of the ''Slovnik řeckých spisovatelů'' (''Dictionary of Greek Writers''). She is the author of the monograph ''Byzantine Education'' (published in 1990)''.'' Dostálová lectured externally at

Charles University Charles University (CUNI; , UK; ; ), or historically as the University of Prague (), is the largest university in the Czech Republic. It is one of the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest universities in the world in conti ...

in Prague and

Masaryk University Masaryk University (MU) (; ) is the second largest university in the Czech Republic, a member of the Compostela Group and the Utrecht Network. Founded in 1919 in Brno, it now consists of ten faculties and 35,115 students. It is named after To ...

Brno Brno ( , ; ) is a Statutory city (Czech Republic), city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava (river), Svitava and Svratka (river), Svratka rivers, Brno has about 403,000 inhabitants, making ...

Publications

* ''Byzantská vzdělanost'' (''Byzantine Education'') Prague: Vyšehrad, 1990. 415 pp. . 2nd ed. Prague: Vyšehrad, 2003. 413 pp. * ''Il romanzo greco e i papiri'' (''The Greek Novel and Papyri'') Prague: Charles University, 1991. 103 pp. * ''Antická mystéria'' (''Ancient Mysteries'') Prague: Vyšehrad, 1997. 365 pp. (co-author Radislav Hošek) * ''Základní kurz novořeckého jazyka'' (''Basic course of the modern Greek language'') Brno: Masaryk University, 2000. 490 pp. . 3rd ed. Prague: Set out, 2008. 498 pp. * ''Řecko'' (''Greece'') Prague: Libri, 2002. 146 pp. * ''Geografie a mýty v Dionysiakách Nonna z Panopole'' (''Geography and Myths in the Dionysiacs of Nonna of Panopole'') Červený Kostelec: Pavel Mervart, 2009. 202 pp.

Achievements

* 2004 – Gold Medal of the Society of Greek Translators of Fine Literature (Athens) * 2004 – UK Medal on the occasion of the 85th anniversary of ETF UK * 2010 – State award of the Hellenic Republic 'Commandeur de l'Ordre du Phénix' , for lifetime work, presented by the Ambassador of Greece to the Czech Republic Constantinos Kokossis * 2011 – Medal of the

Learned Society of the Czech Republic The Learned Society of the Czech Republic ("Učená společnost České republiky") is an association of distinguished scholars of the Czech Republic from all scientific disciplines. Its goal is to support free conduct of research and furtherance of ...

Bibliography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dostalova, Ruzena 1924 births 2014 deaths Writers from Bratislava Czech writers Czech librarians Czech translators Translators from Greek Translators to Czech Czech academics Charles University alumni Scholars of Byzantine literature Scholars of Greek language Czech women writers