The same generation (Štefan Moravčík, Ivan Štrpka, Ján Buzássy, Ivan Laučík, Štefan Strážay) also maintained its leading position in poetry after 1989, gradually joined by other poets (Ján Zambor, Mila Haugová, Milan Richter, Daniel Hevier, Dana Podracká, etc.). In drama, one cannot pass Stanislav Štepka, dramatist and founder of Radošinské naivné divadlo (the Radošina Naive Theatre), which was based on the archetypal folk theatre and intellectually metamorphosed into a unique form; the same is true of the duo of actor-authors Milan Lasica-Július Satinský, persecuted by the regime during normalisation. The GUnaGU (Viliam Klimáček) and Stoka (Blaho Uhlár) scenes represent alternative theatre.
           From the mid 80s, the generation of prose writers born around 1955 thematised the ethos of the period as a problem of cultural identity with an unbreakable faith in the cognitive value of literature. Edmund Hlatký's double novella História vecí (The History of Things, 1988) explores the issue of the susceptibility of man to manipulation in the brutal environment of a fighting military unit. Viktor Simmer Maťuga's novel Protiživot (Anti-Life, 1998 - it could not be published in its entirety before 1989) examines the attitudes of protagonists, characteristic for the period at the end of normalisation, on a wide symbolic canvas. Peter Valček's novella Európska groteska (European Grotesque) written in 1986 and published in autumn 1989 was one of the first to use a postmodern collage of different texts and so anticipates a key process of the 90s - the period of Slovakia's civilisational communication with the Euro-American space.
           The authors of the new generation, particularly the prose writers to whom critics usually apply the label of postmodernism, are sceptical, not only about the present, but also about the cognitive function of art - Tomáš Horváth, Marek Vadas, Vladimír Balla, Pavol Rankov, Václav Pankovčín and others. Peter Pišťanek stands a little apart, using the methods of the low genres to parody socialist literature, the practices of socialism, but also the social developments since 1989 which enabled callous rats not only to get money, but also power (Rivers of Babylon, 1991; Mladý Dônč [The Young Dônč, 1993], Rivers of Babylon 2 alebo Drevená dedina [Rivers of Babylon 2, or Wooden Village, 1994]). P. Pišťanek apart, the world which is mirrored in the works of these authors no longer has anything to do with individual adventure and personal experience, or with observed reality. It is an unreal, panoptic or virtual world, not conforming with logic, or rationality, or morality; it is a world beyond the good and evil. The methods the authors usually employ are irony, parody, sarcasm, absurdity, but also quotation, allusion, inter-textuality, which is intended to emphasise the fact that literature is only a game with words, or cultural phenomenon, which has nothing to do with reality or with its comprehension. However, the states articulated by this literature are real and closely connected with the contemporary man: anxiety (absolutely unmotivated), worry, insecurity, the impossibility of breaking free from predetermined relationships, the impossibility of knowing the real state of affairs, i.e. the world around us, which is saturated with news and information but does not liberate him. On the other hand, this literature is characterised by humour, playfulness, ease, frivolity - all of them often only simulated. All of this conceals disgust at how man (and his reason) has permanently failed in history, how values have been falsified and deception manufactured in society in the name of noble ideals, freedom and fraternity. Ultimately, this literature is also about man's place in the cosmos, where the author situates him, about his possibilities, but mainly about his powerlessness. The range of interest in man fluctuates from empathy to apathy and cruelty, which also hides disappointment. Despite readers' aversion, the movement's importance and weight in Slovak literature are growing.
           Young Slovak poetry is less dynamic than young prose. One of the recent movements was the establishment of the group called the "velvet barbarians" (Ján Litvák , Andrijan Turan, Ivan Kolenič, Kamil Zbruž, Robert Bielik), which, however, has not influenced the development of poetry in a significant way. The authors are united more by their approach to life (orientation on oriental philosophy) than common vews on literature. The poetic counterpart of postmodern prose is the poetry of Peter Macsovszký, who is bilingual, writing in Slovak as well as in Hungarian. Peter Šulej produces experimental "figurative" poems expressing "the computer civilisation".
           One new post-November phenomenon is feminism, apparent not only in literature (Jana Juráňová: Zverina [Deer, 1993], Siete [Nets, 1996]; Iba baba [Just a Babe, 1999], Utrpenie starého kocúra [The Sorrows of an Old Tomcat, 2000]), but also in publishing (the magazine Aspekt, books) and organisationally. The sci-fi genre (fantasy, cyberpunk), no longer limited ideologically, which influenced a significant section of young prose (Michal Hvorecký), gained more space after November 1989. The same can be said of satire (Tomáš Janovic, Peter Gregor), which matured into philosophical reflection.
           It is a little surprising, but needs to be said, that the age of cybernetics and information technology has made a clearer mark on young Slovak literature (prose, poetry and partly also drama) than the transformations, however radical, in tectonic society. As can also be seen from this short synopsis, contemporary Slovak literature (and the literary situation) is alive and developing (although discontinuously and divergently) into new forms. Time will tell which of them are productive. But it is worth reading even now.