Portrayal of a Turk and Turkish life in Slovak literature of the 16th and 17th century Cover Image

Podoby zobrazenia turka a tureckých reálií v slovenskej literatúre 16. a 17. storočia
Portrayal of a Turk and Turkish life in Slovak literature of the 16th and 17th century

Author(s): Zuzana Kákošová
Subject(s): Military history, Social history, Slovak Literature, 16th Century, 17th Century, The Ottoman Empire
Published by: Masarykova univerzita nakladatelství
Keywords: Christianity; Turks; battles; Renaissance and Baroque poetry and prose; Czech exiles; the Czech press;

Summary/Abstract: This article deals with the literary portrayal of a Turk as a hero and with the thematization of Turkish battles and Turkish life in Slovak literature of the 16th and 17th century. We will examine genres of Latin humanistic poetry such as hodoeporicon, epigrams, civic-political compositions (including works of a Czech exile Jakub Jakobeus); historical poetry in its developmental transformations with a reflection of the Czech press about the Battle of Mohács; and Baroque memoir prose (Štefan Pilárik senior). The picture of a Turk is rather prevailingly a picture of an enemy, a cruel murderer or a traitor; in a religious poetry depictions of horrible deeds of Turks are as a “Turkish scourge” connected with the traditional scourges of famine and plague and with appeals to do penance.

  • Issue Year: 13/2010
  • Issue No: 1-2
  • Page Range: 31-45
  • Page Count: 15
  • Language: Czech