Monography profile

Mária Bátorová’s book Contexts and Comparison in Literary Studies (A Model of Interpretation of Alternative Art) develops theoretical and methodological approaches for analyzing the relatively under-explored area of alternative and dissident works in Slovakia, the wider Central European region and beyond in the 20th century. The author proposes an interdisciplinary research model – from the central hermeneutic analysis of a specific text through the authorial category to contexts. An analysis so built is anchored in literary studies and directed towards history, sociology, philosophy and other potential contexts. The interpretation of literary works based on this approach is conducted through analyses of a specific text examined in the context of its historical period as well as other contexts reconstructed on the basis of archival material. The research framework proposed in this book opens up new avenues for systematic anchoring of national literatures (e.g. Slovak literature) into broader coordinates of world literature.