PhD. Topics

František Víťazoslav Sasinek and His Perception of Slavicism

2026

Prof. PhDr. Peter Žeňuch, DrSc.

Contact:

Univerzita Konštantína Filozofa v Nitre

František Víťazoslav Sasinek represents one of the prominent figures of Slovak historiography and culture of the Romantic period of the 19th century. In his works, he combined historical research with linguistic and etymological reasoning. Despite the fact that his work is marked by many shortcomings or even erroneous conclusions, it played a positive role in shaping the linguistic and cultural awareness of Slovaks. Especially in his linguistic and historical views on Slovaks and Slavs on the Middle Danube, he sought to reconstruct the social structure of the ancient Slavs through the analysis of period terminology. He paid special attention to the names of members of the genus and genus community, but also of the tribe, which in his interpretation becomes the key to understanding the organization of society based on the principle of collective linguistic thinking. He thus pointed out the need for a deeper understanding of the historical and semantic development of individual names of social classes not only from the point of view of social status (prince, priest, priestess, serf, etc.) but also of economic function in society. The terms associated with the exercise of power and territorial administration were also at the center of his interest. In his historiographical work, one can also see the penetration of Christian terminology into the Slavic pre-Christian language system, which documents the process of cultural and religious transformation of society. Language as an authentic historical source allows us to reconstruct not only the political, but also the spiritual history of Slovaks and the wider Slavic world. Linguistic-critical analysis and interpretation of names denoting the social structure of society in the work of F. V. Sasinek will enable a deeper understanding of ideas about the social organization of the Slavs.