Pseudonym

A. Horník; Ahy; Peter Arnošt

Birth date

23. 02. 1932  [en] Banská Štiavnica  

Fields of interest

próza, esej, dráma, literatúra pre deti a mládež, sci-fi, scenáristika, publicistika

Briefly about author

Anton Hykisch is one of the major representatives of "Generation 1966," generation that rejected the canon of socialist realism and systemmatically featured the fundamental problems of the time. This orientation included social criticism presented through the medium of interiorised confession and the advent of a new main character stripped of heroic qualities, usually an ordinary young man. Social criticism remains an organic element from the time of Hykisch`s début (A Dream Pulls into the Station) until his mature prose works (Nadia, A Square in Mähring, Relationships, Desire). Hykisch unmasks the increasingly cumbersome social order marked by moral turpitude, incompetent organization of labour, favouritism, corruption and other evils that produce disillusion, apathy, and disenchantment with life. The stories and novels of Hykisch that deal with contemporary themes have a journalistic immediacy, but also emphasize personal concerns and psychology, and eroticism. No wonder that at the beginning of the Seventies, Hykisch was branded an enemy of socialism and his publishing possibilities were limited.
Among readers` favourite books are his historical novels The Time of the Masters and Adore the Queen. In the first one, from the period of the late 15th and early 16th centuries, he reconstructs the fate of an unknown author of a famous painting. The story unfolds against the background of society and significant events in the Slovak mining towns, particularly the miners` uprising of 1525 - 1526 in Banská Štiavnica. In the second novel, there is an evocation of life in Slovakia during the reign of Emperor Maria Theresa. In a dramatic development there are shifts of scenery from the royal court to libraries, workshops, and battlefields. The novel brings to life the period of economic and cultural flowering that came as a result of Theresian and Josephian reforms of 1740 - 1780. It instances the destiny of educated Slovaks of that time, together with the outstanding figures of European history (Voltaire, Haydn, Mozart). In both novels, Hykisch bases his stories on historical sources that help him outline his plot and create his characters. He reinforces the effect by pondering in the eternal problems of existence and history.

Briefly about production

prose:
A Dream Pulls into the Station (Sen vchádza do stanice, 1961, novella), I`ve Met You (Stretol som ťa, 1963, short stories), A Step into the Unknown (Krok do neznáma, 1963, novel), Nadia (Naďa, 1964, novella), A Square in Mähring (Námestie v Mähringu, 1965, novel), The Time of the Masters (Čas majstrov, 1977, novel), Relationships (Vzťahy, 1978, novel), Well Hidden Brain (Dobre utajený mozog, 1979, short stories), Desire (Túžba, 1980, novella), Adore the Queen (Milujte kráľovnú, 1984, novel), Nuclear Summer (Atómové leto, 1986, novel), Defence of Secrets (Obrana tajomstiev, 1990, short stories), Maria Theresa (Mária Terézia, 1999), Alone in Foreign Towns (Sám v cudzích mestách, 2006), Remember the Tsar (Spomeň si na cára, 2007), Pleasures of Yesteryear (Rozkoše dávnych čias, 2009) 

travel books, essays:
Canada Is not a Joke (Kanada nie je "kanada", 1968), Heavenly Steering Wheels (Volanty do nebies, 1975, portraits of racing car drivers), A Holiday in Beijing (Dovolenka v Pekingu, 1990), Don`t Be Afraid of the World /A Guide Book through Global Thinking (Nebojme sa sveta /Sprievodca globálnym myslením/, 2001), What I Think About It (Čo si o tom myslím, 2003), What the politics is like. The Recollections and Records from 1990 - 1992 (Ako chutí politika. Spomienky a záznamy z rokov 1990 – 1992, 2004) What I Think About It (Čo si o tom myslím, 2003).

books for children:

The Future Is Already Now (Budúcnosť je už dnes, 1987, non-fiction), My Friend Čipko (Kamarát Čipko, 1989)

radio plays:
Breaking (Praskanie, 1966), Conception (Počatie, 1969)

film script:
They Don`t Play the Blues for Me (Pre mňa nehrá blues, 1965)

WORKS TRANSLATED
Translations of Hykisch`s works appeared in numerous literary magazines and anthologies abroad.
Nadia (1964 Czech) A Square in Mähring (1967 Czech, 1967 Hungarian)
Relationships (1981 German) Adore the Queen (1985, 1986 Czech, 1988, 2000 German, 1989 Serbo-Croat, 1991 Romanian)
The Time of the Masters (1981 Hungarian, 1989 Russian)

Biography for author

Born 23 February 1932 in Banská Štiavnica. He studied economics in Bratislava. He worked as an economist in the Research Institute of Local Management in Bratislava, in a railway construction company and for the landscaping and recreational services in Bratislava. From 1962 to 969 he worked as an editor in Slovak Radio. Then he was a clerk in the Central Library of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and in the Slovak Fund for Fine Arts. From 1988 to 1992 he was deputy director and later director of the Mladé letá publishing house. In 1993 - 1997 he was Slovakia`s first ever ambassador to Canada. Currently Hykisch teaches political science and diplomacy and lives in Bratislava.

about author

In his novel, Hykisch`s creative strategy, ideology and view of history are brought together by his concentration on the exeptional plucked from the anonymous historical existence of people. In Hykisch`s view, the artist is not exeptional merely because he is an artist. Rather, this is achieved by encapsulatnig the main features of the age and the character of people and being able to communicate this both to his contemporaries and future generations.

In the novel The Time of the Masters , there is an attempt to construct an irreconcilable conflict between the brutality of the time and the flourishing of the human spirit. However, history has a solution: it is not "grand chaos", or "inexplicable wandering".

Author about himself

Memory, memory... Of my unwritten novels: I pray for my health to hold out so that I could bring to light truth for myself and for others. For when we turn to the past, what horrors we see! All those things that frightened us! Entire generations had to pretend, crushed by the weight of totalitarian might. Anyone who rebelled for a while and threw off the mask of hypocrisy, got into a conflict with the regime.

Sample

A FREE ROYAL TOWN (an extract)