The Birth of the Past (Historic genre in the prose of Slovak Romanticism)

Abstract

The study is focused on the research of basic features which constructed a content of cultural memory in the period of Slovak literary Romanticism. The research was done in terms of the materials – publicistic works of Ľudovít Štúr and J. M. Hurban and prose works of Ján Kalinčiak and J. M. Hurban, written in historic genre. The analysis and interpretation of texts confirmed that in the period of Slovak Romanticism basic elements of nationally determined cultural memory are constructed, mainly its symbols and a fine literature was one of its more powerful means in this process. The results of the research show that in Slovak Romantic prose written in historical genre there are two versions of the past as a theme: sceptically– ironic, represented by the works of Ján Kalinčiak and panegyricly – mythic, which was presented by the prose of J. M. Hurban.

Keywords

• j. kalinčiak
• j.m. hurban
• slovak romanticism
• sceptically-ironic version of past
• panegyricly-mythic verson of past