Początek końca demonów zgody. Słowackie rozrachunki z ideologizacją kultury
The beginning of the end of the demons of consent. Coming to terms with ideologisation in Slovak culture

Summary/Abstract: The first part of the article focuses on demonstrating the process of ideologisation in Slovak culture after 1948, i.e. after the beginning of communist rule. This reveals the initial fascination with the idea of communism among the creative community and its gradual enslavement. Additionally, on the one hand it examines the results of repressive measures of power, and on the other it looks at conformist intellectual circles. The second half discusses how Dominik Tatarka, a leading Slovak intellectual, deals with the mechanisms of cultural ideologisation and writers’ attitudes, which concluded in his fictional-political-autobiographical novel Demon of Consent (Démon súhlasu). This work reveals the writer’s strategy to show how the experience of totalitarianism fits with the concept of biblical eschatology. The writer does not, however, ignore the different idealised communist conceptualisations of the era, and often incorporates and combines visions of the tragic, ironic and sometimes grotesque. Finally, the article also takes into account the wider context of the writer’s changes in attitude and their consequences.

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