RUDOLF POKORNÝ AND HIS TRAVELS ACCROSS SLOVAKIA
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| Year of publication | 2017 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | Rudolf Pokorný and his travels across Slovakia This contribution deals with the mutual Czech-Slovak literary relationships in the second half of the 19th century. The number of Slovak students was increasing at the Czech universities, however, at the Czech side so called holiday wanderings around Slovakia became popular, whose purpose was to bring “the report about real Slovakia”. My aim is to reflect on the functionality or non-functionality of these relationships through works of Rudolf Pokorný (1853-1887), who was a prominent Czech poet with a genuine interest in Slovakia. I will use his travelogue Z potulek po Slovensku I. (1883) and II. (1885) (Wanderings in Slovakia I. and II.), which is described as one of his most valuable works. Both parts are extensive and divided into chapters according to the visited regions. He describes the nature and a large section is devoted to geography. He also emphasizes a relatively extensive amount of literature of that period. Although, he himself complained about its unavailability and a significant spread across the magazines. He also drew upon Russian, Polish, Czech and German literature. His work describes daily life, religion, language, customs, crafts, history and ethnography. The work retains its descriptive character and the author uses mainly facts, even when he describes his own experience he remains objective. The travelogue genre is kept intentionally, because his aim was to introduce to Czechs the actual Slovak nation. Rudolf Pokorný remains, from the point of literary scholars, in the shadow of more significant author, Adolf Heyduk, not only during his life but also later. They were, however, close friends and they absolved the trips to Slovakia together. He went already prepared and knowledgeable of the relationships in Slovakia by maintaining a close contact with both Slovak students in Prague and literary and social personalities in Slovakia. |
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