K básnickému konceptu a variantom pohlavnej lásky vo Vajanského veršovanom románe Dušinský

Jozef Tatár

Jazyk: slo

Typ článku: I. Štúdie / Studies

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Vajanský´s poetic concept titled Vít was created in 1878, while some of the parts came out in the late 1870s in the Národnie noviny and Orol. As a book with the title Dušinský it was only published as late as 1909 in Sobrané diela/The Collection of Works, volume 6. The astute observation made by I. Kusý (1987) about anticipating his debut collection does not need editing, nor the emphasis of his ideological and formal innovations in poetry (Petrus, 1966, Šmatlák, 1971, etc). In comparison with the composition titled Maják/TheLighthouse (1879), where Vajanský applied the romantic or postromantic attitude to reality, Dušinský refers to the realist and critical face of the poet. By depicting the petite bourgeoisie enviroment with its readily observed characters, by applying reflexivenss, fragmentarines, lyric elements, conversational style etc., i.e. a new „non-prosaic“ rendition, the narrative and reflexive genre is made by the poet more modern and dynamic. The evolutionary stimulation accompanies the rise of the realist aesthetic structure with its typical attempts at critical probes into the reality of those times. Unlike the previous critical reflection of this literary work focusing on the writer´s share of the evolutionary progress in Slovak poetry and non/confirmation of Vajanský as a receptive poet, this paper pays special attention to the characteristics of the poetic concept with the accent placed on the analysis of the variants of sexual love. When identifying them, what could not be overlooked is the parallels in the „Oneginesque“ themes, the particularity of the characters and the other marked features of the work, their positions and the meanings from the evolutionary perspective of Slovak poetry, the reception principle and the obvious as well as less obvious overlaps with foreign literary sources. There is no need to question Kusý´s designation of the work as a „novel of love“, perhaps just to make it more accurate – the „intended“ novel of love. Everything else – i.e. the national or social issues of those times – is only the period background. Despite the fact that artwise Vajanský attempts to offer a wide variety of characters based on life experience, when thematizing sexual love he remains constrained by the contemporary social tabboos as well as his own ones. The source of this „monochromatic“ attitude is the writer´s as well as the community awareness which affects the way the characters are shaped. Love as a life determinant or its motivating force does not produce the same effect; many of them cannot (Vít) or do not want to exploit their emotional potential (Karol) and although they represent the ideal object or subject of love, they fail to opt for the person with the absolute significance (Anna), alternatively they painfully reveal what they really feel (Malvína). What Vajanský did in Dušinský again is to only bet on love in the form of one-sided affection – platonic, leaning towards the Wertheresque type – lacking any contact with the vital force of Eros, by which he established a strict border between soul and body. Thus in an artistically unproductive way he simplifies things and he makes the characters seem inanimate, apathetic or even schizoid. Even though the writer managed to be in an activating contact with the reader, nowadays Dušinský could hardly be expected to get significant reception. However, due to the gaps in literary scientific reflection and orientation towards new analytical and interpretative reading, this important piece of the literary corpus of Slovak epic poetry presented an exciting challenge. Key words: love variants, characters, verse novel, Dušinský

Publikované: 22. 12. 2018