National and Regional Consciousness in Western Slavic Essay-Writing during the Anti-Communist Movement
National and Regional Consciousness in Western Slavic Essay-Writing during the Anti-Communist Movement

Summary/Abstract: This study examines three western Slavonic, Central European nationalities: the Czechs, Slovaks, and Poles. They are related to each other by language, origins and culture. Presently, each of them has its own independent nation-state, but from 1945 to 1989, these nations were incorporated into the so-called “socialist camp” under Russian domination. This study examines changes in the national identity of these peoples from 1968 to the present. It looks at those changes by investigating the written essay, which has the flexibility as well as the ability to express sophisticated and delicate national feelings better than any other literary form. It is picturesque and filled with metaphors, intertextuality, and numerous rhetorical constructions: for that reason, it has an emotional content much greater than that of an arid scientific treatise. Because of its “innate subjectivism,” which is one of the prime characteristics of this genre, the essay penetrates collective dreams, illusions, and phobias better than any other discursive statement; the same holds true for national affinities and animosities. Because of its characteristic liberty and boundless spiritual loftiness, the essay topples old myths and creates new ones, and, as a rule, does not claim that the views it expresses are final. By tackling the most essential questions, it retains the essence of an essay in the truest sense of the word, i.e., a true endeavor.

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