Slovak literary canon and canonical status of literary work of art Cover Image

Kánon slovenskej literatúry a kánonický status literárneho diela
Slovak literary canon and canonical status of literary work of art

Author(s): Zoltán Rédey
Subject(s): Literary Texts
Published by: Ústav svetovej literatúry, Slovenská akadémia vied
Keywords: Slovak literary canon; Literary and aesthetic value of the text; Ideological; regards; extensional and intensional semantics of the literary work

Summary/Abstract: The contribution focuses on the question: to what extent is the Slovak literary canon grounded in the literary and aesthetic value of the texts it contains? In what sense, or, to what extent is the canon determined by eventual extra-literary, mainly ideological, matters? The paper does not examine the problem in its full extent; it rather demonstrates this upon the synecdochical choice of exemplary literary works of art, especially on the poetry of P. O. Hviezdoslav who emblematically embodies the national literary classic, as well as on the poetry of J. Ondruš. The paper points to a more general tendency in the practice of contemporary Slovak literary historiography which tends to classify work as canonical, disregarding its aesthetic value – structured at the level of intensional meaning (that is language, texture, “form of expression”) – and considers only its extensional semantics. To be more precise, it rather follows an “extensionally represented” content – mediated in its different metatextual forms (paraphrases, transcripts, adjustment) – which, on this level, is interpreted from extraliterary, mainly ideological, standpoints.

  • Issue Year: VII/2015
  • Issue No: 3
  • Page Range: 16-29
  • Page Count: 14