My text is an attempt to apply Charles Taylor’s theory, dealing with the origins
of the modern self, to Czech autobiographical literature originating in Romanticism.
Taking a cue from Jean Starobinski and Philippe Lejeune’s concepts of
modern autobiography, I analyse Karel Hynek Mácha’s personal diary from
1835 and try to find and emphasize its narrative and compositional aspects,
which anticipate the poetics of modern poetic diaries.