Idylický topos v slovenskej próze šesťdesiatych rokov 19. storočia
The Idyllic Topos in the 1860s Slovak Prose

Summary/Abstract: The paper focuses on Slovak prose written in the 1860s. The first part maps the social and cultural context of literary production and the state of the national emancipation process which received new impulses in the new political situation during the period of time between the end of absolutism and the Austro-Hungarian Compromise in 1867. The other part of the paper pays attention to social novellas written by Mikuláš Štefan Ferienčík (1825 – 1881), Daniel Bachát (1840 – 1906), Viliam Pauliny-Tóth (1826 – 1877) and Štefan Križan (1826 – 1894), which comply with new requirements laid down on prose, namely to entertain, to attract and to educate the bourgeois audience as well as to address their national awareness. The works of prose mentioned above feature an idyllic topos characteristic of the 19th century Slovak literary discourse. It either has a form of a „lovely place“ in a remote forest settlement which keeps the world of civilization at a distance or a „happy home“ which stays in a close contact with it. Despite certain remnants of romantic poetics, which may be disclosed in representations of an idyllic topos, the writings present a rather biedermeier-like attitude towards the reality: the ordinary is shown as a celebration or a ritual, they try to establish harmony between the idyllic place and the outer world, the community of a family or friends is depicted as a place that is a guarantee of moral values and national freedom.

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