Slovenska Literatura (Dec 2005)
From Empathy to Disillusion and Inner Disintegration (Vincent Šikula: S Rozarkou) (Vincent Šikula: With Rozarka)
Abstract
The way of depiction of the character of an outsider in the prose of Vincent Šikula from the 60s of the 20th century is in the centre of the study. The character of an outsider is not rare in Slovak literature. It was frequent at least since the period of realism in the works of M. Kukučín, Timrava or J.G. Tajovský and later on it became common in Slovak literature between the two wars and in the literature after the Second World War (e.g. in the works by M. Urban, F. Švantner, D. Tatarka, R. Jašík, S. Rakús, D. Dušek, etc.). The character of an outsider is a model character that is a syntheses of character features of an epic character, symptoms of certain period and fatality of a human being supplanted for different reasons to the outskirts of society (village shephards, drummers, servants, beggars, tramps, old men, physically and mentally disabled characters). The author of the study shows that outsiders do not only appear episodically in Šikula’s works but they become the main characters of his short story, novella or novel. In the prose S Rozarkou (With Rozarka) (1966) Rozarka (an eighteen year old girl with intellectual disability with childlike intellect is promoted to a bearer of an epical event. The author places Rozarka and the narrator Ondrej who is in the position of his sisters substitute mother to the centre of his narration. The study gives an analyses of the language with the elements of poetisation and rhytm of the text and characterizes the way of narration “on various things” that is the main composition principle in this novella. The author of the study also pays attention to the depiction of the empathetic relationship between brother and sister as well as to the topic of incest in the background of the story that has not been reflected by the critics of Šikula’s work.
