The Idyllic as a Symptom (in the Narrative Structure of Texts of Slovak Literary Realism) Cover Image

Idylické ako symptóm (v naratívnej štruktúre textov slovenského literárneho realizmu)
The Idyllic as a Symptom (in the Narrative Structure of Texts of Slovak Literary Realism)

Author(s): Milan Kendra
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Slovak Literature, Theory of Literature
Published by: Ústav slovenskej literatúry SAV
Keywords: Literary Realism; narrative; the idyllic; anachronism; metalepsis;

Summary/Abstract: The study aims to approach the idyllic within the context of realistic representation not as a category represented by strictly specified group of idyllic means of expression but rather a stylistic layer in which variability of expression plays a major role. The study focuses on particular examples of authorial metalepsis and intrusions of extradiegetic narrator which undermines mimetic illusion of realistic narrative and, as a result, the inventedness of the story and the idyllic nature of the narrative are foregrounded. Several examples extracted from various genres (a travelogue, a short story, a sketch) and authors (G. K. Zechenter-Laskomerský, M. Kukučín and S. H. Vajanský) of Slovak literary realism are given to demonstrate the shifts from the realistic to the idyllic caused by the metaleptic quality of narrative embedding. The communicative value and the effect of the idyllic is determined by the technique how the narrative is integrated into the context of complex literary expression. The change of functional perspective from the realistic to the idyllic in the fiction concerned is signalled by the symptom of anachronism considered illegitimate in temporal and causal system of realistic depiction. The symptom challenges its epistemological and educational function and in the study it is evaluated as the expression of desire for transgression of relations of successiveness and equivalence, logic and causality of objective, external necessity typical of literary techniques of the period.

  • Issue Year: 65/2018
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 116 - 129
  • Page Count: 14
  • Language: Slovak