Básnické poviedky Janka Kráľa
Janko Kráľ and his tales in verse

Summary/Abstract: The article deals with tales in verse authored by the Slovak Romantic poet Janko Kráľ (1822 – 1876). These have traditionally been presented in literary historiography as generic realisations of the Byronic type of tale in verse. The article takes a closer look at this generic categorisation and discusses the extent to which it is accurate. By means of comparative analysis, the article confronts the source Byronic model of the genre with its Slovak realisations. It discusses similarities and differences between the texts authored by G. G. Byron and those written by Janko Kráľ on several levels – ideational-thematic, the construction of characters, relationship between epic and lyric components, fragmentariness of narration, length of the text, and spatial-temporal contexts. Comparison of the poems shows that J. Kráľ did not fully realise the typical generic form of Byronic Romanticism – the Byronic type of tale in verse –, but only partially adopted some of its typological features. J. Kráľ created a distinctive and in many ways specific type of tale in verse which differs from the Byronic model of the genre. Therefore, the traditional labelling of the Slovak Romantic poet’s tales in verse as “Byronic” does not appear to be overly adequate.

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