Infection and Its Semantic Positions in the Novel “Atoms of God” Cover Image

Nákaza a jej sémantické polohy v románe Atómy Boha
Infection and Its Semantic Positions in the Novel “Atoms of God”

Author(s): Marcela Antošová
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Sociology of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego
Keywords: infection; philosophy; egocentrism; self-preservation instinct; biological determinism

Summary/Abstract: The article focuses on the novel Atoms of God by Gejza Vámoš. The study looks at the work through the motif of infection, which has three dimensions in the novel: organic life as an infection, egocentrism as infection and infection as a health disorder. As a result, the first two levels represent the phenomenon of infection in the figurative sense of the word, and only the last level of the motif captures it in its primary meaning. However, all three levels of the infection overlap, correspond and complement each other. Their background (starting point) is the philosophical worldview, which the writer in the Atoms of God (identically to his academic dissertation on the philosophy of the Principle of Cruelty) himself declares. Vámoš, inspired by biological determinism, defines life as an infection by an egocentric struggle of an individual about himself and for himself. Moreover, in the end, it is egocentrism that weakens the individual even in the fight against the disease.

  • Issue Year: 177/2023
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 181-194
  • Page Count: 14
  • Language: Slovenian