Slovak Literature Between The Wars

The founding of the Republic of Czechoslovakia in 1918 created good conditions for the growth of Slovak literature. Suppressed cultural institutions such as Matica Slovenská were restored and new literary magazines were founded, Young Slovakia, Bonfire, Elán, Slovak Directions. Authors who had creative energy engaged in a national defensive struggle attempting to enter literary Europe and were inspired by currents in modern art. For prose writers the fundamental idea lay in Expressionism, not as a definitive artistic opinion but as a mood latent in a world derailed by the First World War. We find it in the works of all the important prose writers of the 1920’s; J. Hrušovský, G. Vámoš, T. J. Gašpar and others. Lyricism was imposed on style and language and became a constant distinguishing mark in inter-war prose. The dominant tendency among all these is in the work of M. Urban and J. C. Hronský. Urban was attracted by the fate of the Slovak village during the war and after. In the expressive tones of his novels he uncovered profound layers in human temperament and laid bare the “spirit” of the village community. J. C. Hronský gradually made his way as a prominent modernist with an interest in the social facade of a village, but also the interior life of humanity. His novels are composed with an inventive method with regard to structure. Post-revolutionary poetry reacted to a variety of impulses. The developing centre of gravity moved into the work of younger writers of which E. B. Lukáč still held to the symbolist canon while Ján Smrek adopted vitalism and sensualism. His poetry was the expression of the optimistic mood of the post-war generation before whom a world opened where the monsters of war were absent. The slowly maturing Valentín Beniak  began under the influence of Czech poetism. Later he arrived at his own poetic with free composition and emotion-laden intonation. In 1924 a group of leftward leaning poets, DAV, came into being influenced by revolutionary events in Russia. The poets of this persuasion attempted a new kind of poetry, “proletarian poetry”, at the same time experimenting with different poetic techniques. Their work oscillated between revolutionary agitation and modernism which was the actual form of poetism. The most significant poet of DAV was Laco Novomeský.

In the mid-1930’s there were a number of striking initiatives in Slovak literature marking the stability and variety of the Slovak literary scene. In poetry there was surrealism and the work of what was known as “Catholic modern”. In prose naturalism was transformed and the economic crisis impelled left wing authors towards social realism. The group of Slovak surrealists; R. Fabry, V. Reisel, Š. Žáry, P. Bunčák and others, inspired by French surrealism and chiefly the poetry of V. Nezval, achieved a dominant position only in the 1940’s. The poets of the Catholic Modern: R. Dilong, J. Silan, P. G. Hlbina and others emerged from the reflections of Henri Bremond on “pure poetry” and poetry as prayer. Their poetry grew between spirituality and worldliness.

Even Slovak naturism was no stranger to French impulses. It had affinities with French regionalism; J. Giono, H. Pourrat, C. F. Zamuz.  There were other sources; the folk tale and. biblical stories. The folk tale, especially, became an exploited archetype of naturism. Its authors, D. Chrobák, M. Figuli and F. Švantner, flavoured their narratives with its elements and also added to the expressive power of the language they used including the use of biblical feeling.  A rudimentary hero conformed to truncated epic foundations and was placed in the co-ordinates of the natural world. Naturism emphasised pure love, friendship, fidelity and understanding as permanent values. The work of Slovak naturism had a wide readership and for a long time it was considered to be the authentic expression of the national character. Gradually their poetic ran its course and work empty of expressiveness succeeded it, including D. Tatarka, J. Červeň and P. Karvaš, where the aim was not to create literary prose through language but through constructing subject and in a distinctive manner intellectualised the tale.

In the years 1918 to 1938 the foundations of modern Slovak literature were laid. It emerged from isolation, rid itself national defensiveness and became open to European currents, at the same preserving a distinctive national culture.

Vladimír Petrík