Pomníková poézia. Poznámky k možnému typu príležitostnej lyriky v povojnovej literatúre
Poems as monuments. Towards outlining a type of occasional lyric in post-WWII literature

Summary/Abstract: Occasional verse is one of the oldest forms of lyric and it can be thought of as a form of materialisation and consolidation of memory. The character of this inevitably fleeting type of poetry that expresses an engagement of its author on a private or private matter much depends on historical and social changes. Occasional verse is inseparably bound to the time of its composition as it addresses chosen aspects of the era and – especially when it comes to public occasional poems – makes visible the large period narratives. These attributes can also be identified in the Slovak poetry written after 1948 when Czechoslovakia entered the era of state socialism and the poetry in question was part of the system of socialist realism. When observing period’s occasional poetry from the point of view of memory studies (especially general locations of memory and the theory of memorials), one can note striking similarities (poetological, functional) between a significant proportion of the period poetic production and war memorials built at that time. The article explains these relations as part of the specific construal of the national and socialist narrative in which differences between individual and collective experience, everyday life and festivities, history and present, memory and history got radically blurred.

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