what is Slovak literature?
Slovakia is definitely a modest corner of Europe, as far as literature is concerned. The beginnings of Slovak written culture may be traced back to the 9th/10th-century Great Moravia, with its civilizing heroes, Cyril, Methodius, and Clement of Ohrid. The subsequent century brought about some writing in Old Church Slavonic, Latin, Czech, and slovakized Czech, yet not enough to shape a distinctive identity. Medieval Slovakia appears rather as a borderland between more powerful cultural centres, Moravia on the one side, and Hungary on the other. This situation was to change only in the 16th and 17th centuries, with the emergence of clearer national aspirations. They may be associated with the contribution of the Lutheran priest Jiří Třanovský, who is often seen as the father of Slovak hymnody. This tradition of Slovak spiritual poetry was continued by Daniel Sinapius-Horčička.
Nonetheless, the distinction between Czech and Slovak remained vague up to the 18th century. The first standardization of the Slovak was the work of a Catholic priest, Anton Bernolák, author of Gramatica Slavika. Nonetheless, the Pan-Slavic tendencies of the period tended to blur the distinctions in favour of a common, Czech-Slovak identity. So the cause of the clearly defined Slovak language had to wait. It only came true as the result of the 19th-century national revival. Ľudovít Štúr's Nárečja slovenskuo alebo potreba písaňja v tomto nárečí (1844) contributed to this linguistic development. Janko Kráľ was one of the first poets to write in this freshly codified language. Slovak prose, on the other hand, was born with the realist novels of Martin Kukučín.
Nonetheless, the distinction between Czech and Slovak remained vague up to the 18th century. The first standardization of the Slovak was the work of a Catholic priest, Anton Bernolák, author of Gramatica Slavika. Nonetheless, the Pan-Slavic tendencies of the period tended to blur the distinctions in favour of a common, Czech-Slovak identity. So the cause of the clearly defined Slovak language had to wait. It only came true as the result of the 19th-century national revival. Ľudovít Štúr's Nárečja slovenskuo alebo potreba písaňja v tomto nárečí (1844) contributed to this linguistic development. Janko Kráľ was one of the first poets to write in this freshly codified language. Slovak prose, on the other hand, was born with the realist novels of Martin Kukučín.
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Teresa Wyattová mala zvláštny pocit, že táto noc bude jej posledná
I know very little about Slovak literature. The names I heard about, and checked right now on Wikipedia, prove to be Czech rather than Slovakian. I do know not why I'm learning the Slovak language. Simply because I found a polar translated into Slovak on a bookshelf in a hotel. It's Angela Marsons' Silent Scream. Probably I wouldn't read this book if it were in any language in which I'm used to read. But the strangeness of the Slovak version captivates me. The constant effort of guessing what those words and sentences could mean give me more pleasure than the criminal intrigue. At each deciphered sentence, a little bulb triumphantly switches on in my head. The language sounds to me like a particularly creative dialect of Polish, mixed with more remote, Balkan echoes. I progress slowly in a book that should be a page-turner, but the effort is a pleasant challenge. I often wonder why I enjoy languages so much. Or why I don't see the Poles reading their Slovak books on trains and buses. And books in Czech, or Croatian, or Ukrainian, or any neighbouring tongue, just to enjoy little bulbs switching on in their heads. On the contrary, I often see people who got annoyed with unusual language, even with unusual, harder, or more melodious pronunciation, as if it was some secret trigger of aggression. Some people literarily cannot stand foreign speech.
But really, it is not a big feat. I could get to the global understanding of this novel, enough to follow its criminal intrigue, straight from the first page, even if I never had any previous contact with Slovak, simply relying on its resemblance with Polish. I just opened the book and by now I have avidly read more than half of it. Do I have some sort of special predisposition for languages? Strangely, I don't remember anyone telling me that all along my school years. And I started to enjoy languages as a hobby, I mean such things as reading books in Slovak, only as an adult woman, around 40 years old more or less. I've heard about people who pay for language kindergartens for their kids, persuaded about the existence of "windows of opportunity" for language acquisition in early childhood. But I've never heard about "windows of opportunity" that are open for women in their forties. To the contrary, I heard the opinion that in such an age it is much harder, almost impossible to learn a language; this is a part of the stereotype that says such women are more or less useless, just good enough to be sent home. This is why I give the testimony. I've reached a point that I wouldn't even dream about in my twenties. In my twenties, I dreamed about speaking five languages like George Steiner. Slovak would be something like my 25th.
Angela Marsonsová, Tichý výkrik, trans. Martina Šturcelová, Bratislava, Ikar, 2016.
Kraków, 15.10.2021.
But really, it is not a big feat. I could get to the global understanding of this novel, enough to follow its criminal intrigue, straight from the first page, even if I never had any previous contact with Slovak, simply relying on its resemblance with Polish. I just opened the book and by now I have avidly read more than half of it. Do I have some sort of special predisposition for languages? Strangely, I don't remember anyone telling me that all along my school years. And I started to enjoy languages as a hobby, I mean such things as reading books in Slovak, only as an adult woman, around 40 years old more or less. I've heard about people who pay for language kindergartens for their kids, persuaded about the existence of "windows of opportunity" for language acquisition in early childhood. But I've never heard about "windows of opportunity" that are open for women in their forties. To the contrary, I heard the opinion that in such an age it is much harder, almost impossible to learn a language; this is a part of the stereotype that says such women are more or less useless, just good enough to be sent home. This is why I give the testimony. I've reached a point that I wouldn't even dream about in my twenties. In my twenties, I dreamed about speaking five languages like George Steiner. Slovak would be something like my 25th.
Angela Marsonsová, Tichý výkrik, trans. Martina Šturcelová, Bratislava, Ikar, 2016.
Kraków, 15.10.2021.
