The Department of Romance Studies is composed of four sections: Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese. The academic staff specializes in the linguistics and literature of one of these languages. Courses offered by the department are equally divided between two areas: linguistics (e.g., phonetics, morphology, and syntax of Spanish, French, Italian, or Portuguese) and literature (e.g., the history of literature from the studied regions, literary theory, and the philosophy of literature).
The department’s primary research activities in linguistics focus on the synchronic and diachronic study of Romance languages, as well as contrastive analysis between Romance languages and Czech. Particular emphasis is placed on the use of both monolingual and parallel language corpora.
In the field of literature, the department’s research centers on the theory and methodology of literary criticism, the evolution of literary genres, and their relationship with Lusophone, Hispanic, French, and Italian cultural contexts. Special attention is given to prominent authors from the Romance language areas and their influence on literary history.