Zvieratá mesta – mesto zvierat. Príroda a civilizácia v poézii Štefana Moravčíka
Animals of the city – the city of animals. Nature and civilisation in the poetry of Štefan Moravčík

(Notes on the poem “Holutkan a potkábica [Pigeorat and she-ratgeon]”)

Summary/Abstract: The article tackles the shaping of the relationship between nature and civilisation in the poetry of Štefan Moravčík (b. 1943). It focuses on urban and natural (particularly animal) motifs in the poet’s collections from the 1980s – Moravčík’s second creative period. The article notes the qualities that have characterised Moravčík’s poetry since his collections Erosnička ([Treerotic frog] 1981) and Tichá domácnosť ([Silent household] 1981) in terms of the conception of man and the world as outlined in Moravčík’s first collections of poetry from the 1960s. The reasons why Moravčík’s vitalism was problematized are linked to the opening of his poetry to the urban life: the nature of the relationship between nature and the city is an antagonistic one in his poetry. The analysis of the poem “Holutkan a potkábica [Pigeorat and she-ratgeon]” from the collection of poems Idiotikon ([Idioticon] 1989) focuses on the role animal motifs play in the shaping of the poem’s genre, the unfolding of its meaning, and also looks at what functions neologisms perform in the text. The article reflects on the poem’s parodic relationship to the fable and myth, notes the link between the poem’s ecological theme and its civic-protest focus with an existential undertone.

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