Slovenska Literatura (Jun 2009)
Ján Smrek (Eva Ave)
Abstract
The aim of the study is to find a place for a poetic composition Eva Ave in the context of Smrek´s official work as an integral part of it, and point out aesthetic, ethical and value residua that make the composition a part of Smrek´s poetic model of a man and world. The poetic composition Eva Ave was published unofficially and under the pseudonym Cavaliere senza nome in 1942: in a radical way it makes and evidence of some basic categories of Smrek´s poetic model such as there are freedom, identity, ethos or morality. In the midst of war years Smrek comes back to an intimate topic of woman, beauty, love. He searches the capacity of them in the combination of parodic function and pornographic style. Smrek´s para-literary composition makes an innovation in the scheme of love, erotic lyrics in a way how they used to function in domestic literary tradition and he directly enters into confrontation with the compositions Ave Eva (Ján Kostra), Noc (Night, Ján Poničan) a Básnik a žena (The Poet and A Woman, Ján Smrek). In spite of pornographic generic identity he establishes in the background of value (ethic and moral) starting points characteristic for the official part of Smrek´s works: Eva Ave is not only an expression of a subversive gesture of destruction of noble ideals, but behind the scene of instinctive and instinctual powers presented in a man he also identifies religious and sacral resources playing a role. Smrek cancels opposition of profane and sacral matter pointing out at correspondence between material and spiritual character the way he integrates body into a spiritual experience. The contribution of the study is mainly in potential opening of discussion about the text that became a part of Slovak literature only after more that a half century and in placing Eva Ave into the context of official Smrek´s poetic work.
