Slovenska Literatura (Jun 2009)
”THE MOST FORBEARING OF THE CRITICS “ – A CRITIC OF AN ADEQUATE MEASURE: SKETCH (VLADIMÍR PETRÍK: SEEKING THE PRESENT TIME )
Abstract
The study is dedicated to the first literary critical book of Vladmír Petrík, an edition of the selected studies and reviews Hľadanie prítomného času (Seeking the Present Time,1970). It is an attempt to depict through several stated criteria characteristic elements of Petrík´s critical gesture. His literary critical domain was a fiction, and not only that one with primarily aesthetic ambitions. He kept understanding for social function of literature, he dealt with non fiction, too, and also with science fiction, criminal stories etc. His approach was (and also is) receptive; he is a type of critique sensitive for a reader. In the horizon of his thinking he always pays attention to the process of development in literature. The studies of the history of literature are an integral part of his book. They aim at peripeteia of Slovak literature after 1945. His reflection of the fiction is dateless. He was not a type of a generational critique; he had no ambition to make “directions” for an actual literature. His approach was always quite unworldly and it helped him to see things from the top and even a little farther away than his contemporaries did overwhelmed by the situation. The negative experience from the first half of the 50-tieth determined his way of seeing things. It was a period of extremes. For several years the substance of critical function disappeared (both fine literature and critique became instruments of propaganda) as well as “measure of things“ (not only in the arts). The measure was that later Vladimír Petrík applied in fullness in his literary critical works and works of the history of literature.
