Samuel Pellionis als Dialektdichter
Samuel Pellionis as a Dialect Poet

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this paper is to explore the extent to which the work of the German dialect poet Samuel Pellionis (1870–1953) from the language enclave region Spiš (Ger. Zips) in Eastern Slovakia fits into or corrects the traditional view of dialect literature. In the first half of the 20th century, German dialect literature was dominated by an effort to depict the ideal rural homeland. However, it was mainly written by academically educated poets who often lived in cities. Samuel Pellionis was a shoemaker without a higher academic education who did not adhere to the standards of traditional dialect literature. Instead of only using the dialect to depict a stereotypical rural environment (parallelism), Pellionis wrote about topics such as the two world wars, politics, or a desire to flee his homeland, which is a deviation from the norm. The article furthermore questions the criteria that poets and literary scholars of the past used to determine whether someone could be considered a poet (instead of being regarded just as an uneducated “rhymer”).

• Details
• Contents