Slovak literature
Slovak literature is literature in the Slovak language in the narrower sense and literature in the broader sense that originated on the territory of Slovakia .
First written monuments
The oldest known written evidence in the area of today's Slovakia - even if not literary - are inscriptions on Celtic coins, which are more than 2000 years old. The first author of a literary work written in Slovakia was the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius . During his campaigns against the Quadi in 174 he wrote his philosophical work “Ta eis heauton” ( self-contemplation ) on the banks of the river Grannus ( Hron ).
Old Slavic literature
The first local literature originated at the time of the Moravian Empire . As a result of the two Slav missionaries Kyrill and Method , a new Slavic script was created in the 9th century, the Glagoliza (Slovak: hlaholika ), which enabled the development of written and literary works in the Old Slavonic language .
Literature in the High Middle Ages
National renewal
The first “Slovak” literary work was the novel “René mláďenca príhodi a skusenosti” ( Adventures and experiences of the young man René ) published by the Catholic priest Jozef Ignác Bajza from 1783 to 1785 , which was written in a strongly Slovakized Czech , but not as Literary language prevailed. A priest by the name of Anton Bernolák was again more successful , who in 1787 created the first written Slovak language based on the West Slovak dialect (the so-called Bernolák ). Juraj Fándly (1750-1811) and Ján Hollý (1785-1849) used this first written Slovak language . Fándly brought out the first major literary work in Bernolakian Slovak in 1789, which satirically dealt with the conditions in the monasteries. The poet Hollý used Bernolák Slovak to translate classical authors such as Homer, Virgil and Horace, as well as for his epics about heroes from the early days of the Slovak people, such as "Svätopluk" (1833) and "Cirillo-Metodiada" (1835), based on them ). Hollý also idealized Slovak pastoral life in his odes and elegies.
Bernolák could not establish itself as the general Slovak literary language, as the nationally conscious Protestant intellectuals used the revived Czech language. Their most important representatives were Ján Kollár (1793–1852) and Pavol Jozef Šafárik (1795–1861). Kollár highlighted the common roots of the Czech and Slovak languages and tried to popularize a "Czechoslovak" written language among the educated Slovaks. In this language he also wrote his masterpiece "Slávy dcera" ( Daughter of Slava ) , published in 1826 . Kollár represented an idealized image of the Slavs, which again and again shaped Slovak literature deeply into the 20th century. Kollár and Šafárik also put on a collection of Slavic folk songs. The generally accepted standard Slovak language was not until the written language codified between 1843 and 1846 by the Protestant scholar Ľudovít Štúr and his colleagues, which was based on central Slovak dialects . This was accepted by a large number of younger poets and writers who created the classic works of Slovak romanticism , such as Samo Chalupka , Janko Kráľ , Ján Botto and Andrej Braxatoris-Sládkovič .
realism
With Svetozár Hurban Vajanský and Pavol Országh Hviezdoslav came the era of Slovak poetic realism . Hviezdoslav wrote the poetry collections "Jesenné zvuky" ( autumnal sound , 1878), "Oblaky" ( clouds ; 1879) and "Krvavé Sonety" ( bloody sonnets ; 1882–1886). The high point of his extensive output of important natural and thought poetry was the anthology of poetry "Leterosti" ( rings of growth ; 1885–1886) published in three volumes . In addition, Hviezdoslav contributed to the spread of world literature in his country by translating the works of Shakespeare, Goethe, Schiller, Słowacki, Mickiewicz and Petőfi. Some of the most popular works of Slovak realism were written by women writers, notably Božena Slančíková (1867–1951). In her naturalistic stories such as “Veľké šťastie” ( Great luck ; 1906) and “Ťapákovci” ( The Ťapák family ; 1914) she described the rapidly changing life of Slovak rural and urban society.
Modern
At the turn of the 20th century, Janko Jesenský (1874–1945) and Ivan Krasko (1876–1958) initiated a change in poetry. Krasko, who became known among other things with the poetry collections "Nox et solitudo" ( Night and Loneliness ; 1909) and "Verše" ( Verse ; 1912), is described as the actual literary founder of Slovak modernism . The exemption from the requirements of Hungarian cultural policy and the establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic after the First World War created favorable conditions for the literary boom in Czechoslovakia in the 1920s and 1930s. Milo Urban (1904–1982) dealt with the fate of the war and the experiences of people in the changed post-war conditions in his novel “Živý bič” ( The Living Scourge ; 1927) and Jozef Cíger-Hronský (1896–1960) in the prose works “Chlieb” ( Bread ; 1931) and “Jozef Mak” (1933). The social problems were taken up in an even more radical way by a left-wing group of poets, the most famous of which was Ladislav Novomeský (1904–1976). Novomeský searched in his rich poetic work - including the poetry collections “Nedeľa” ( Sunday ; 1927) and “Romboid” ( Rhomboid ; 1932), “Otvorené okná” ( Open Windows ; 1935) and “Sväty za dedinou” ( The saint behind the Dorf ; 1939) - to combine experimental , artistic poetry with social engagement.
Literature under Socialism
With the exception of a few authors who were too close to the Tiso regime and had to leave the country, all literary movements in Slovakia experienced a renewed boom in the first years after the Second World War. At first, many Slovak poets and writers did not find the communists' seizure of power in February 1948 oppressive. The widely respected and famous resistance fighter, Ladislav Novomeský, campaigned for the party's support in building socialism at the first joint congress of Czech and Slovak writers in Prague in 1949. The Slovak Communist Writers ' Union, which all authors interested in further publications had to join, exercised absolute control over literary production. In 1951 the traditional socialist group of poets, the “ Davists ”, was dissolved and its most prominent member, Ladislav Novomeský, who had meanwhile held high party and government functions, was arrested and expelled from the party.
After Stalin's death in 1953, the “thaw” decreed by the new leadership in Moscow hesitantly spread in Czechoslovakia. The volume of poetry “Až dozrieme” ( Until we become ripe ; 1956) by Milan Rúfus was about abuse of power and inhumanity , whose moral pathos was understood as a sign of a spiritual renewal. In 1956 Dominik Tatarka (1913–1989) went public again with the prose work “Démon súhlasu” ( The Demon of Consent ), which satirically in court with the personality cult in socialism, the conformity of the Stalin era and the ideological entanglement of the people. Ladislav Mňačko (1919–1994), who, after overcoming a doctrinal communist phase, wrote the novel “Smrť sa volá Engelchen” ( Death is a hot angel ; 1959), a realistic and not uncritical representation of the partisan struggle , is considered the outstanding figure of the prose writers of those years achieved success in World War II, at home and abroad. With the brutality of the Stalinist regime and the dull stagnation of the Novotný era he counted in the essay series "Oneskorené reportaže" (Belated reports ) and the novel "Ako chutí moc" ( How power tastes. 1966).
A rich chapter in Slovak literature were poems, stories and novels for children, to which Milan Rúfus, among others, contributed. He did not publish his poems, which he wrote in the post-war years, until 1974 under the title “Chlapec maľuje dúhu” ( A boy paints the rainbow ). His guiding principle, the honesty demanded by the poet, pervades his entire lyric work, up to the collections “Neskorý autoportrét” ( late self-portrait ; 1992) or “Čítanie z údelu” (reading as fate; 1996) that appeared in the 1990s . Rúfus was considered the most important living Slovak poet until his death in 2009, and from 1991 until his death he was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature every year .
Since 1989
Since 1989, literary magazines with a renewed editorial team such as “Slovenské pohľady” ( Slovak Views ) or newly founded papers such as “Literárny týždenník” ( Literary Weekly ) have offered young authors a platform for introductions and discussions, and many authors who were banned before 1989 found publishers again , so z. B. Ivan Laučik , Ivan Kadlečík , Pavel Hruz , Martin Bútora and Martin Šimečka .
Contemporary authors include Mila Haugová , Michal Hvorecký , Ján Zambor , Milan Richter , Daniel Hevier and Dana Podracká .
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Collective: Slovensko A – Ž [Slovakia from A – Ž]. Ikar, Bratislava 2009, p. 226.
- ↑ Collective: Slovensko A – Ž [Slovakia from A – Ž]. Ikar, Bratislava 2009, p. 226. (Slovak)
- ↑ Roland Schönfeld: Slovakia: From the Middle Ages to the Present. Verlag Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg 2000, ISBN 3-7917-1723-5 , p. 245.
- ^ Schönfeld: Slovakia. 2000, pp. 245-246.
- ^ Schönfeld: Slovakia. 2000, pp. 246-247.
- ^ Schönfeld: Slovakia. 2000, pp. 247-248.
- ^ Schönfeld: Slovakia. 2000, p. 249.
- ^ Schönfeld: Slovakia. 2000, pp. 249-250.
- ^ Schönfeld: Slovakia. 2000, pp. 251-252.
- ^ Schönfeld: Slovakia. 2000, p. 253.
- ^ Schönfeld: Slovakia. 2000, p. 253.
- ^ Schönfeld: Slovakia. 2000, p. 254.
- ^ Schönfeld: Slovakia. 2000, p. 256.
- ↑ www.litcentrum.sk , accessed on November 23, 2013, 1:37 pm.
- ^ Schönfeld: Slovakia. 2000, p. 257.