Slovenska Literatura (Sep 2019)
Innkeeper, Vampire, Parasite. The Transformations of the Image of a Jew in the 1940s Works of František Švantner
Abstract
The goal of the paper is to stimulate discussion about literary antisemitism in modern Slovak literature exemplified by one of its most notable writers, František Švantner (1912 – 1950). In line with the research trends in the Czech and German contexts, it draws attention to interconnections between literature and other discourses at that time, and the ambivalent nature of depicting Jews in literature, where negative stereotypes are combined with seemingly positive ones (literary „allosemitism“). The analysis of two selected novels and one novella reveals a modernized stereotype of the „Jewish usurer“, which was present in Slovak literature from the early 19th century. Under the influence of the rasist discourse the usurer stereotype was transformed into the parasite stereotype using the symbol of blood as the central metaphor. In the novel Nevesta hôľ / The Bride of the Ridge Švantner suggests the variant of vampirism, which is further developed in the novel Život bez konca / Life without an End in the sense of „racial impregnation“, i.e. infection and contagion. In the novella Sedliak / The Peasant thematizing his personal experience with persecution of Jews during the World War II, the ambivalent nature of literary antisemitism is refferred to by questioning the victim status of the literary character, who he again portrayed by conforming to the parasite stereotype.
