Technooptimizmus Jána Stacha. Interpretácia básne S nohami na zemi, nespaví, dvíhame hlavu k lune
Ján Stacho’s techno-optimism. An interpretation of the poem “S nohami na zemi, nespaví, dvíhame hlavu k lune [With feet on the ground, sleepless, we raise our heads to the moon]”

Summary/Abstract: The paper examines the poem “S nohami na zemi, nespaví, dvíhame hlavu k lune [With feet on the ground, sleepless, we raise our heads to the moon]” by Ján Stacho (1936–1995), a member of the Trnava Group, whose members are also referred to as the “Concretists”. The poem comes from Stacho’s debut collection Svadobná cesta (The honeymoon, 1961). The paper approaches the text as a rare expression of techno-optimism within Stacho’s oeuvre, which otherwise tends to turn towards tradition, often drawing on Christian symbolism and employing motifs with an archetypal quality. It first analyses techno-optimism in the poem in terms of the idea of progress, including its connection to the vertical axis and to the dichotomy between the static and the dynamic. It then interprets the intellectual chemical and physical imagery, especially the motif of acids, in relation to the topical motif of salt, which in Stacho’s work also assumes the status of a symbol, particularly in the opening poem of Svadobná cesta, “Soľ do zmyslov [Salt into the senses]”. The paper subsequently addresses the updated form of the Icarus motif, whose meaning is inverted in relation to the original myth. Finally, it examines the transformation of the motif of the moon from a traditional poetic symbol into an expression of technological progress and the triumph of the Soviet space programme.

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