Electronic Library of Scientific Literature - © Academic Electronic Press

SLOVENSKÁ LITERATÚRA

Volume XLVIII, 2001 / No 6

• Marcela M i k u l o v á, The myth, determination, reality in the prose of Tajovský 457
• Jiří H o l ý, The novels Živý bič (A Living Whip) and Hmly na úsvite (Misls at the Daybreak) in the Czech context 472
• Jana K u z m í k o v á, The equation with two unknowns in the works of Ivan Horváth 485
• Peter Z a j a c, Tisícročná včela (A Thousand Year Bee) as a myth of surviving 493

• Mária R a p o š o v á, The last creative holiday of Pavol Országh Hviezdoslav 501
• Tomáš H o r v á t h, The dictionary of Slovak literature of the 19^th century: Jonáš Záborský 507

Review 520

From scholarly life 533

The myth, determination, reality in the prose of Tajovský

Tajovský consciously made the autonomy of the structure of a piece of art problematic in a way that he himself became a narrator and so he was a guarantee of the “realness” of the described world. He cancelled the illusiveness on the all levels of text and he tried to “overcome” the distance between the text and reality. Reality can be represented also by the language – Tajovský uses extreme measure of denotation capacity. Almost all his artistically valued proses are without the perspective of narration and that means without tension because since the beginning the result of a story of man is being felt. The closeup is so basic that it is close to the genres of odes and legends. The place and time are not important for them because the described stories have been lasting in their historical iteration. The study is based on the analysis of the typical texts of Tajovský Do konca, Mamka Pôstková, and Tajní boháči. They bear archetyp-mythological basis and they conform the presence of the universal inspiration in the Slovak prose in the beginning of the 20^th century.

The novels Živý bič (A Living Whip) and Hmly na úsvite (Misls at the Daybreak) in the Czech context

The study deals on two novels by a Slovak author Milo Urban entitled “Živý bič” (1927) and “Hmly na úsvite” (1930) in connection with Czech literature written in the same period of time. The first Urban's novel “Živý bič” dealing with the 1^st World War was often compared to a Czech novel by Vladislav Vančura “Pole orná a válečná” (1925). The study tries to trace back both the similarities and differences in the individual poetics of the authors and also in the context of the national literatures. From this point of view, the novel “Živý bič” seems closer to Fráňa Šrámek's prose. The study also deals whith the novel “Hmly na úsvite” as a type of a social novel reflecting the questions of Czech and Slovak mutual relations and co-existence.

The equation with two unknowns in the works of Ivan Horváth

The study is an attempt to clarify in which way the (postmodernistic) problem of rupture between denotated and denotation occured and solve also earlier in the modernistic texts of Ivan Horváth. “Reality” in the novel Rovnica s dvoma neznámymi (The Equation with Two Unknowns) is being changed according to the fact what is stressed at the momement – decadent-nietzsche or freud-nietzsche rhetoric. In the same time there are disproportions discovered in the speech of the narrator. The disproportions are between logical and rhetoric level of the narration. According to the analysis of the novel the whole work of Ivan Horvath could be perceived as a conscious linguistic work on redudant (that means linguisticky complex) canals for the filling the praxis of an authentic life.

Tisícročná včela (A Thausand Year Bee) as a myth of surviving

The study deals with the symbol of bee in the novel by Peter Jaroš Tisícročná včela and the film adaptation of it made by Juraj Jakubisko. The picture of the bee contains connection of the basis of collective identity of the nation and the class and connects mythic and utopic levels. It has three layers: biological (sex), peasant (work) and reflexive (history).
Applying of feminine principal presenting in the film in two forms – sexual and begetting on one hand and in social function on the second hand - makes the first level. Mythically it concerns the domination of matriarchy and from the aspect of Christianity it includes the Marian motive which is very strong and often connected with the motive of the bee in Slovak literature.
Character of the bee society forms the second layer of the novel. The bee society is a world of tireless and repetitive begetting and work. It connects with the Mináč’s motive of the history of Slovaks as the history of begetting force and work which is foundation of surviving. This interpretation is an attempt of Mináč to span the national myth of the 19^th century with the communist utopia from the 20^th century.
The cultural dimension of the bee makes the third layer. Mináč uses it as an connection with the national symbol of lime and bee from the beginning of the 19^th century which became a part of iconography of Matica slovenská as a bee - the mother of nation.
The study shows that in spite of the fact that there are carnival, fantastic, bizzare-grotesque layers putting on the previous levels in the novel as well as in the film (the bizzare-grotesque layer is visually strengthen in the film), the basis of both - the novel and the film – shows the concept presented by Mináč concerns the connection of the national myth with the communist utopia.