Slovenska Literatura (May 2015)
Apologue as a Genre of Baroque Literature
Abstract
Within the genre range of Slovak Baroque literature there has appeared to be a less known genre called apologue. It happened in the work titled Apologorum moralium libri VI (Trnava, 1747, 1752) by Konštantín Halapi (1698 – 1752). Apologue can be translated as fable. Fable is also referred to in many titles of the texts in the collection. Fables appear in Slovak Baroque literature as parts of sermons fulfilling the function of exemplums as well as parts of manuscript almanacs of folk and semi-folk literature. In both cases the target reader was a simple individual. Halapi´s apologues are different in many ways; the Latin language and quantitative metre suggest that these apologues are meant for advanced readers, and are not used as exemplums. The author offers them as autonomous works of art. The paper offers a brief overview of the historical development of fable as a genre and apologue as a concept in the context of Ancient and neo-Latin literature. The analysis of Halapi´s collection, where the poet offers his own view of apologue as a genre, is used to examine how the genre was perceived in the context of the contemporary literature. Halapi highlights the didactic function of literature and the persuasive potential of aesthetically valuable allegorical short stories. He freely admits their unconcealed fictitiousness as the „invented things“ in the stories serve the truth and education.
