Slovenska Literatura (Feb 2010)
MIKULÁŠ DOHNÁNY: CONTEMPLATIVE ELEGIES
Abstract
Ľubica Somolayova´s study Mikuláš Dohnány: Dumy (Contemplative Elegies) interprets one of the most significant texts of the author, a representative of Romantic generation, a cycle Dumy (Contemplative Elegies). She characterizes it in the wider context of his literary works. She analyses also some other texts (poems Improvizácia /Improvisation/ and Sen /The Dream/) inspired by romantic individualism and titanism. She mostly aimed at the poems with messianic motifs from the 40-tieth of the 19th century (Slovo /The Word/, Zakliata krajina /Enchanted Country/, Syn Tatier /The Son of Tatras/). They became a starting impulse for her interpretation of Dumy (Contemplative Elegies). She considers the text a symbiosis of several romantic tendencies. The work of Mikuláš Dohnány proves the fact that an initial titanism is a common denominator typical for several messianistic projects appreciating activity based on autonomous decisions of a subject made on behalf of the entire community. If the titanic act shows as non realisable, or it fails, the subject has a tendency to isolate, passively meditating in the shelter, waiting for an upcoming great historical change. The change does not come because of an autonomous decision of the subject, or the entire community, but in terms of messianistic concept, it can come true only through meeting God´s plan.
