Slovenska Literatura (Jun 2011)
Paralipomena to P. Vilikovský’s Eskalácia citu I.
Abstract
The present article deals with P.Vilikovský´s prose Eskalácia citu I (Emotion Escalation I, written in the mid 1970s, published in a magazin in 1982, in the collection of short stories Eskalácia citu in 1989) – in a latent discussion with P. Zajac´s interpretations and comments accompanying the edition P. Vilikovský: Prózy (2005). The study advances in four steps. 1. It makes the intertextual bonds with J. M. Hurban´s romantic historical prose Olejkár (Medicine man) more precise, raises a question of the book´s motifs, synonymic fictional prose in forming a story plot and its disillusioned reassessment, touches two potential intertextual traces more (I. Bunin, V. Holan). 2. It pays attention to the text´s lyric dimension (the handicapped heroine´s lyric sensibility, the exploiting of idiomatic expressions and key words, analogically with contemporary poetry) and its parallel rhetoric dimension (negotiations of the characters when facing misunderstandings), named ad hoc as „enthymeme“. 3. It outlines „Piešťany topos“ of Slovak literature in the early 1970s (D. Tatarka, P. Vilikovský) and „spa semantics“ in the plot of Eskalácia citu I. 4. It returns to the prose Olejkár and in discussion correlates its final scene of the trial with the culprits with the subject of „love“, excess, violence, rape in Eskalácia citu I, with the characters´ interpretations and assessment. – Notes on P. Vilikovský´s prose end in a statement that it is disturbingly „open“ in reading and interpreting of text.
