SOURCE: "The Neglected Collection—Čapek's Apocryphal Stories as Allegory," in On Karel Čapek: A Michigan Slavic Colloquium, Michigan Slavic Publications, 1992, pp. 65-86.

In the following essay, Steiner provides the historical context for Čapek's Apocryphal Stories. The critic claims that, in addition to their philosophical and aesthetic value, the stories have political significance, asserting "The allegorical mode of writing permitted Čapek to close the gap between poetics and politics, to satisfy his artistic ambitions without giving up the civic responsibilities he felt so keenly."

The word "apocrypha" is, according to the OED, derived from the Greek kryptein, 'to hide away'. Its occurrence in the title of Čapek's collection of stories, which has been so well hidden from the prying eye of literary critics, thus seems quite appropriate. To the best of my knowledge there is only one scholarly article devoted to the Apocryphal Stories, and it was published in...