Umelecká hodnota pohrebnej reči Serafína Piščeka
The Aesthetic Value of a Funeral Speech by Serafín Pišček

Summary/Abstract: The contribution is dedicated to the Franciscan preacher Serafín Pišček, a representative of the Slovak baroque homiletic writers. It focuses on the textual analysis of Pišček’s funeral speech Žalost upokojená (Soothed Grief) (Trnava 1760), a valuable linguistic monument formulated in the cultural pre-standard Slovak. The speech delivered by Pišček at the funeral of the countess Františka Ňáriová (Nyáriová) is, on the one hand, a commemoration of the virtues and deeds of the deceased, though on the other hand it is a reflection on dealing with a loss of a close person. With respect to the composition, it contains fixed components of a funeral speech (lamentatio, consolatio, valedictio, laus mortui). In terms of minor thematic components, it is possible to find evidence of Pišček’s effort towards a compelling and impressive speech. In order for the content to be compelling, Pišček uses the biblical text and the works of the catholic theologians as the sources of his arguments. To achieve impressiveness of expression, he uses short historical narratives (exempla), affective expressions (epithets, comparisons), tropes (metaphor, symbol), figures of speech (questions, apostrophes).

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