Slovenska Literatura (Jun 2011)
Jozef Miloslav Hurban and his Olejkár
Abstract
The study contains an interpretation of Slovak romantic writer Jozef Miloslav Hurban´s prose Olejkár (Medicine man). It is meant to verify essential structural features which participate in the production of the prose´s receptive meaning. The interpretation showed that the basic intention which can be identified in the text is deliberately laying emphasis on pragmatic functions of fiction.The intention is in accord with the idea of fiction purposefulness which was presented and formulated by Jozef Miloslav Hurban in his theoretical works, namely Slovensko a jeho život literárny (Slovakia and its literary life), where Hurban openly formulates his idea of extralitetary functions of fiction, while the nation representation is the dominant one. The key element necessary for history thematisation is Hurban´s construct of progressive history direction epitomized in the metaphor of a pyramid. Thus formed theoretical premise finds its fictional manifestation in the prose Olejkár. In terms of history thematisation the composition principle is tension between historiographically verified version of historical facts and their fictional recoding. This approach is in the text represented by the character of Matúš Čák Trenčiansky, who is depicted as a „Slovak patriot“ and a representative of „good old times“. The functional emphasis of nation-representative intention is also seen in the thematisation of love as mainly individual heroic sacrifice for the good of the nation. Hurban thus incorporates into his prose - besides his own theoretical construct of nation history - Štúr´s call for sacrificing personal matters (love, marriage) on the altar of the nation.
