Slovenska Literatura (Sep 2018)
J. M. Hurban conception of Czech-Slovak mutuality on the travelogue example
Abstract
The study focuses on the conception of Czech-Slovak mutuality in one of the key travel texts of the 19th century, in the Hurban‘s Cesta Slováka ku bratrům slavenským na Moravě a v Čechách (Path of the Slovak to the Slavic brothers in Moravia and Bohemia) in 1839 (1841). As a type of so-called National Revival travelogue, it carries a number of stereotypical constructions, which are used in other texts of travelogue genre of the 19th century in the Czech and Slovak literature. In the thirties and forties of the 19th century, the National Revival type of travelogue had a precise function, relying on modelling the positive representation of Slavic mutuality or Czech-Slovak mutuality. Hurban's travelogue reflects this developmental position in the form of an emblematic capture of the landscape, with emphasis on meta-linguistic reflections on common language and modelling of stereotypical constructions in imaging close and different ethnicities. The study analyzes the text in relation to both Czech and Slovak pretexts, which together form a specific paradigm system of national emblems and symbols.
