Tatry v slovenskej a poľskej literatúre vyjadrujúce vzájomnú súvislosť poľského a slovenského národa

Author(s): Jana Dzuriaková / Language(s): Polish Issue: 22/2013

In the article I deal with perception of Tatras in Slovak na Polish literature. I refer to perception of Tatras by Polish authors, which understood Tatras as a helth enviroment for human soul. Authors literature is full of pesimism and boredom, but Tatras help them to overcome theirs deprssion. Slovak authors see in the Tatras the guardians of Slovak nation. Their perception is more nationalist and Tatras are characterized as subjects of Slovak national identity. The common feature of both groups of authors is characterization of Tatras as “Tatras – Prometheus”. This characterization emerges in works of distinguished authors as Hviezdoslav or Tetmajer. For both nations are Tatras important characteristic of national awakening.

Словашкият романтизъм като литературна и културна идентичност

Author(s): Valeria Todorova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2015

The Slovak Romantic Movement arises in a time when classicism is in its decline in European art and philosophical idealism and rational knowledge are giving way to intuition, spontaneity and wild imagination. Modern aesthetic and artistic impulses gain popularity in Slovakia in the1830s and meet with a positive response from the young generation off students in Bratislava, Levoиa and Kežmarok. The gradual transition to the aesthetics and poetics of romanticism in the end of the1930s and the beginning of the 1940s brings about a number of metamorphoses in the cultural-historical consciousness of the Slovakromantic author, who, in the spirit of Štúr’s ideal for “unity of spirit andmatter”, creates distinctive romantic norms. He is inspired both byintuitively-emotional impulses and by his own historical destiny, by folk literature, by national idiosyncrasies and the need for literary, cultural and spiritual identification.

Словашки източници за византийско-славянската традиция и култура (за Peter Žeňuch, Pramene...)

Author(s): Kamen Dimitrov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2015

„...kde Maďarka, tam hnev; kde Nemkyňa, tam faleš; kde Cigánka, tam krádež“1 Utváranie stereotypov o „iných“ v slovenskej cestopisnej a národopisnej literatúre 19. storočia

Author(s): Rastislav Molda / Language(s): Slovak Issue: 2/2012

The aim of the study is the analysis of the stereotypes of Hungarians, Jews, Germans and Romanies that are portrayed in the Slovak literature of the 19th century. The primary sources of the text analysis are travel and ethnographic works published as separate titles as well as the articles issued in the periodical press. Some of the mentioned literary pieces were due to limited publishing and financial possibilities published only in student's manuscript magazines and humorous magazines. Making stereotypes springs from an ambivalent relationship when there is the differentiation between "we" and "the others". Slovak authors used ironic, negative and even pejorative words when describing "the other" nationalities, whereas, they offered a positive self-portrayal when representing Slovaks. The goal of this study is to provide the record of the creation and usage of ethnic stereotypes in its complexity and in its context of the genesis of Slovak auto- and hetero-stereotypes about Hungarian nationalities in Slovak intellectual discussion. In this analysis of the stereotypes their functionality, frequency in various social environments as well as the media in which they occurred are stressed. Attention is paid to Slovak authors' expressions used in the depiction of "the others". The study is devoted to the stereotypes with the emphasis on particular situations in which they were formed. Moreover, this work points out reciprocal influence of the stereotypes and their importance. The extent of the study does not allow analyzing all the Slovak hetero-stereotypes mentioned in these literary genres. Therefore only the selection from the hetero-stereotype catalogue will be presented. According to this election Hungarians are presented as "a lazy and indolent nation", Germans as a "greedy and self-conceited" nation, Jews are stereotypically perceived as innkeepers and the stereotypes about Romanies are simply negative.

Smutný príbeh zo smutných čias: dve vojny v rodinnom živote spisovateľky Terézie Vansovej

Author(s): Xénia Šuchová / Language(s): Slovak Issue: 1/2009

The family history of the writer Tereza Vansová (1857-1942) was affected by two world wars. She lived through the Great War and World War II as an adult person – as the wife, later widow of an Evangelical pastor, socially engaged member of the Slovak intelligentsia aware of their national identity. There is no doubt that her distinguished position in society and her religion as well as her social status determined the character of her personal and family experience; furthermore, they influenced her conditions during and after the wars in terms of the applied "strategies of survival". In both war conflicts, Vansová´s opinions opposed the official establishment (first the Hungarian, and later on, the populists). In the revolutionary situation after World War I, she was one of the sincere supporters of the new Czechoslovak state and its democratic regime. The traumatising experience, which she recorded in documents of personal character, is in many ways typical of the environment of Evangelical families. Its negative impact upon Vansová´s family life was intensified by the fact that she was a public figure, emancipated intellectual, fully responsible for the financial support of an incomplete, to a certain extent, rather atypical family. The paper draws mainly on ego-documents: memories, correspondence, diaries, private records and marginal notes, put by the writer into contrast with documents of official provenience and other memoir literature.

Dílo Jana Kollára ve světle klasicistních a romantických tendencí uherských literatur neo-latinské a školní latinské provenience

Author(s): Róbert Kiss Szemán / Language(s): Czech Issue: 1/2017

The study deals with Ján Kollár’s oeuvre in the light of the classicist and romantic tendencies of national cultures in Central Europe. The first part of the study addresses the place of Kollar’s work within the canon of Classicism and/or Romanticism. The study states a significant difference between the Czech and Slovak reception of Kollár’s work, which results from their inherent differencies. To evaluate the relevance of these questions today the study applies the methodology of postmodern and postcolonial cultural theory. The second part of the paper suggests a new perspective on Kollár’s work – namely from the viewpoint of the Latin and Neo-Latin culture in Hungary in the 18th end 19th century.

The Role of Literature in Reconciling Trauma on Personal and Social Level

Author(s): Kristýna Bušková / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2013

This paper outlines the role of narrative in experiencing and reconciling trauma from the viewpoint of psychology and illustrates the role of literature in trauma reconciliation. It argues that personal trauma related to social and political context cannot be fully reconciled without prompting a parallel reconciliation process on the social level. Literature is seen as a possible vehicle for initiating and facilitating such process. This point is illustrated by an example of two autobiographical books dealing with personal experiences from the Czechoslovak Communist era.

THE HERMENEUTICS OF PRAGUE

Author(s): Mariana Dvorzsik Lazar / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2021

Review of: Primàvara de la Praga. Ghid politic, cultural si turistic (The Prague Spring. Political, Cultural and Tourist Guide), by Paul Magheru Editura Neverland, Bucuresti, 2020 As a graduate of the faculty of Slavic Languages, Paul Magheru came into direct contact with the events surrounding the Prague Spring. Now that the history had its course, he can understand better the mysterious network of events that preceded it. The book is a cultural and personal voyage, a subjective history written as a homage to the exploration of friendship in our age and in the past.

РЕАЛНОСТ И УТОПИЯ В ТВОРЧЕСТВОТО НА ГЕЙЗА ВАМОШ

Author(s): Dagmar Garay Krochanova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2022

Gejza Vamoš (1901 Devavanya, Hungary – 1956 Muriae Minas, Brazil) is one of the most remarkable Slovak writers of the interwar period. His life and literary work is similar to those of a number of European intellectuals of Jewish origin, who experienced otherness and alienation, and looked for strategies to overcome them. Despite the fact that the legislation in the Czechoslovak Republic in the interwar period supported religious equality, the stereotypes concerning the Jews and the doubts about their assimilation continued. Vamoš expressed his ideas about a new community in his doctoral dissertation in philosophy Princip krutosti (The Principle of Cruelty) defended at Comenius University in Bratislava in 1932 as well as in his literary works, especially in the novels Atomy Boha (Atoms of God) (1928) and Odlomena haluz (Broken Branch) (1934). The former work challenges the idea of creation and perceives a doctor of medicine as a new prophet, whereas the latter one discusses the possibilities of Jewish assimilation and the problems of upbringing. Odlomena haluz was awarded a prize in Prague but at the same time Vamoš faced lawsuits and severe accusations related to some parts of the novel. In 1939, he left for China, and in the late 1940s, he moved to Brazil. New editions of his fiction appeared in Czechoslovakia in the 1960s, and after 1989, his work was included in the history of philosophical thinking in Slovakia

Stredoškolské literárne dimenzie cyrilo-metodského odkazu (1862-1990)

Author(s): Július Lomenčík / Language(s): Slovak Issue: 03/2022

For 160 years, the literary education at secondary Slovak schools has reflected the Cyril-Methodian traditions in textbooks and extracts from preserved literary documents. This article describes how the work of Constantine-Cyril and Methodius has been reflected in school documents, particularly in textbooks by Emil Černý, since the first gymnasia were established in Slovakia in the so called Matica period (the second half of the 19th century). After the Czechoslovak Republic was established in 1918, the Cyril-Methodian tradition was closely linked with the official ideology of the first republic – the ideology of Czechoslovakism. At that time, literature textbooks and readers brought only very brief information about the missionary work of Cyril and Methodius. Textbooks published during the first Slovak Republic (1939 1945) provide more in-depth information regarding the work of the Thessalonian brothers. Readers published in this period include extracts from the literary heritage preserved from the Great Moravian Empire, as well as samples from research conducted after World War I. Under the new social-political conditions (1948 – 1989), when the Marxist-Leninist ideology and atheism were imposed by the government, students gained only basic information on the mission of Cyril and Methodius which was being interpreted according to the requirements of the ideology. As to the literary documents, only some of them were made available for students, particularly extracts from Moravian-Pannonian legends of from Proglas. Students only learned some facts about the missionaries which were then interpreted schematically, without the deep understanding of concrete literary documents. Rote learning of textbook facts about Cyril and Methodius caused students to be passive and not to show any interest in reading extracts from original literary works originated in the Great Moravian Empire. The current secondary education needs to overcome this schematic attitude towards the studies of the old Slovak literature, particularly its beginnings, because the values created by our ancestors are part of our heritage and present.

„Polityka do biblioteki nie należy. Biblioteka chce i ma służyć wszystkim obywatelom bez różnicy” – obraz bibliotekarstwa w Czechosłowacji na łamach czasopism fachowych w latach 1945–1955

Author(s): Agnieszka Łuszpak / Language(s): Polish Issue: 4/2022

Various materials published in professional journals show us a picture of the professional life of a given group. Therefore, an attempt was made to reconstruct the image of ibrarianship in Czechoslovakia in 1945–1955 on the basis of the content published in two major periodicals: „Knihovna” and „Lidová Knihovna”. During this period, the functions of libraries and librarian were redefined. Convincing decision-makers about the role of books in building the socialist system resulted in attempts to involve librarians in propaganda activities.

Skúmanie jazyka literárneho diela v časopise Slovenská reč

Author(s): Juraj Vaňko / Language(s): Slovak Issue: 3/2022

The issue of the language of a literary work was at the center of attention of the Slovenská reč journal from the very beginning of its existence. It was related to the efforts of the editors to establish the standard of literary Slovak and increase its culture in practice, with a special emphasis on the culture and purity of the language of literature. Therefore, the contributions about the language of the literary works of Slovak writers are mainly published in the years 1932-1939, i.e. in the period of the peak of the purist focus of the journal, clearly of a language-critical nature: they point out language errors, especially Bohemisms in the analyzed literary texts. After 1945, when Slovenská reč as a journal for the Slovak language research definitively abandoned the position of purism, contributions about the language of a literary work are oriented towards a functional analysis and interpretation of the language of a literary text.

„Černá kůže – ta je přece levnější než gumové boty.“ Reprezentace kolonialismu v cestopisech Jiřího Hanzelky a Miroslava Zikmunda

Author(s): Anna Chejnová / Language(s): Czech Issue: 01/2023

The study deals with representations of colonialism in the travelogues by Jiří Hanzelka and Miroslav Zikmund. The main reason behind writing the text is the specific position of Czechoslovakia within the post-war colonial discourse and the fact that although Hanzelka a Zikmund are a famous pair of Czechoslovak travellers, such an analysis of their travelogues has not yet been carried out. The study aims to answer the question of how Hanzelka and Zikmund represented colonialism in their texts and what these representations say about them and the social environment from which they set out into the world. These representations are mostly associated with criticism of capitalism and were deployed to highlight the positive qualities of socialist regimes and to delineate the differences between the world of the so-called West and the world of the East. Today the label 'West' usually carries rather historically progressive connotations but Hanzelka and Zikmund tend to present quite the opposite, which creates an interesting difference between how they presented themselves outside their travelogues and what is recorded in their work. Indeed, the popularity of these authors in contemporary historical memory is linked, among other things, with their anti-communist attitudes and subsequent persecution (for example, the ban on publishing in their later years). The study also addresses the issue of the applicability of the concept of Orientalism to societies that were not direct participants in expansive colonial ventures.

„V tých dlhých nociach dlho premýšľavam o tebe, Slavianstvo, náš svete ty!: Slovania a slovanská vzájomnosť vo výrazovom pláne lyriky P. O. Hviezdoslava

Author(s): Vladimíra Vrajová / Language(s): Slovak Issue: 01/2023

The paper focuses on the poetic depiction of Slavs and Slavic reciprocity in the poetry of P. O. Hviezdoslav with a national and social theme. The aim is to abstract the authoring strategies, which are applied in the representation of Slavonicity at the lexical and morpho-syntactic level. The research sample consists of 42 poems written between 1868 and 1914 with an explicit Slavic focus. Methodologically, the research falls into the field of general linguistics (stylistics). The results show the dominance of the anthropomorphic principle in metaphorical representation, which also demonstrates the postulates of cognitive linguistics. On the other hand, the functional application of verbal categories is primarily related to the degree of unification of the lyrical subject with the Slavs, but also to the accentuation of their unity/numerosity, (un)favourable state and (lack of) prospects for the future.

Nederlandbeelden in Oorlog met het kleine Nederland (1965). Een nooit opgevoerde twee-akter van Rudolf Sloboda

Author(s): Benjamin Bossaert / Language(s): Dutch Issue: 5S/2022

The Slovak writer Rudolf Sloboda is considered one of the leading authors of Slovak literature since World War II. His oeuvre is divided into prose, which, according to Sloboda expert Zora Prušková, can be called extremely autobiographical, and several collections of poems, essays and children’s books, but in addition he also wrote several film scenarios and two theatre plays. Most biographers forget to mention the two-act play that was published in 1965 in two issues of the literary magazine Slovenské pohľady as Vojna s malým Holandskom (War with the Little Netherlands), because this play was never performed. In this contribution, some striking features of the play are explained. It also outlines the context in which the play originated, which was accompanied by censorship by the Communist regime. Finally, it is argued that, if the geographical names and the characters are examined closely, a chronotopical counterpart to Alfred Jarry’s absurdist play Ubu Roi was created here, with the Netherlands deemed an abstract enough concept.

ИЗЧЕЗВАЩИЯТ ЛИРИЧЕСКИ СУБЕКТ В СЪВРЕМЕННАТА СЛОВАШКА ПОЕЗИЯ. ВЪРХУ ТЕКСТОВЕ НА ПРЕДСТАВИТЕЛИ НА ТЕКСТОВАТА ГЕНЕРАЦИЯ

Author(s): Irena Dimova-Gencheva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2024

The current study focuses on some of the transformations of the lyrical subject in contemporary Slovak poetry after 1989. The chosen authors are representatives of the so-called Text Generation – a poetic group defined by the Slovak critics – and appear to be key figures in the development of postmodernism in Slovak context. Peter Macsovszky is considered a leading postmodern poet in literature after 1989, and Michal Habaj is seen as his follower calling himself ‘a big epigone.’ The main problem investigated in their works is the reduction or the negation of the category of the self. Both authors made their literary debuts in the '90s and are seen as part of the experimental-deconstructional line in Slovak poetry. Their books ‘Fear of Utopia’ and ‘80-967760-4-5’ include self-referential texts in which the poets play with the categories of author, subject, and literature itself. The interpretation of the selected works is based on the authors’ concept of writing as an act of constructing a text reality enclosed within itself and reflecting on the literary terminology which is made by. Their works not only reflect on intertextuality as a literary concept, but in the case of Michal Habaj try to be tendentiously intertextually connected to works by Peter Macsovszky. In the texts, we see the reduction of the self to a grammatical form as leading to something of a disappearing lyrical subject.

The Image Base of Fairy Tale Formula in the Structure of Folklore Text (Based on Russian, Slovak, and Czech Fairy Tales and Their Translations)

Author(s): Oleh Tyshchenko,Marianna Figedyová / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2023

The article presents a comparative analysis of fairy tale texts from the perspective of their structural, semantic, pragmatic, as well as linguistic and cultural features. Verbal and semiotic code of fairy tales has been reconstructed on the basis of their bidirectional translation (translation of Folk Russian Tales by A. Afanasiev into Slovak and Czech and Slovak and Czech fairy tales translation into Russian). The article considers initial, middle and final fairy formulas ones proceeding from the archetypal structure, value and semantic dominants, as well as concepts of folklore texts (transformations and variants of plots and allomotives, typology of images and names of fairy tale characters through the lens of V. Propp, S. Neklyudov, E. Novik and others’ views). The units are described both in terms of their equivalence, figurative structure, and possible translation transformations, as well as ways of transferring culture-specific elements and pragmes into foreign cultural folklore and semiotic space. The approach applied in the article presupposes cultural and semantic reconstruction of the predominant conceptual spheres actualized in fairy tales, particularly the ones of giving, the Way, ‘us’ and ‘them’, happy end and marriage, oppositions of the living and the dead, functions of fairy tale loci, such as emptiness, chaos and cosmogonic representations associated with them. The research analyzes modal, temporal, and syntactic characteristics of fairy tale formulas, lexical and semantic substitutions, as well as compensations and equivalents in the target text.

„Obraz stratí pamäť“. K anamnéze významového utvárania a možných súvislostí básne J. Ondruša Strom

Author(s): Fedor Matejov / Language(s): Slovak Issue: 45/2024

Fedor Matejov's analysis of Ján Ondruš's poem "Strom" delves into the symbolic interplay between the physical and the metaphorical, focusing on themes of injury, personification, and the human condition. Matejov explores the poem's depiction of a stigmatized tree, drawing parallels between the tree's physical wounds and human suffering. The poem's imagery, including the "scarred" tree and the "cooling" of its severed parts, evokes a sense of shared vulnerability and resilience. Matejov highlights Ondruš's use of archaic language and motifs, such as the "cutting" and "cooling" of the tree, to convey deeper existential themes. The analysis also touches on the poem's structural elements, including its repetitive and cyclical nature, which mirror the ongoing process of healing and memory. Matejov's interpretation underscores the poem's rich layers of meaning, inviting readers to reflect on the interconnectedness of nature and humanity. The essay concludes by situating Ondruš's work within the broader context of Slovak literature, emphasizing its enduring relevance and impact.

Rankovova Klinika čili Léčba nicotou a bezútěšností

Author(s): Lubomír Machala / Language(s): Czech Issue: 1/2024

The article informs about the complex of Slovak literary awards Panta Rhei Awards and especially about Pavol Rankov‘s prose The Clinic, which won the PRA Literary Academy Award in 2023. After a brief introduction of the author and a recapitulation of his work to date, an interpretative analysis follows, emphasizing that this is a model prose, precise in partial details, but basically resigned to soul-searching verisimilitude, convincing motivation of the characters’ actions or authenticity in depicting the setting. The story of an individual trying in vain to get into the care of a renowned expert is a conscious variation on the works of world-famous authors (Kafka, Beckett, Orwell, etc.), emphasising the futility and futility of human striving and effort.

Človek, tvor nepoučiteľný. Nad prozaickou zbierkou Dom pre jeleňa od Dominiky Moravčíkovej

Author(s): Zuzana Urbaničová / Language(s): Czech Issue: 1/2024

In this paper, we analyse a collection of short stories entitled Dom pre jeleňa (2002) by the author Dominika Moravčíková, who has already drawn attention to herself with her literary debut, a collection of poems, Deti Hamelnu (2020). In both collections, we can observe similar authorial practices, thematic focus, but also specifics analogous to a dis tinct movement in contemporary Slovak literature.