"The Eternal Beauty of Archaic Slovakia." The Dissemination of the Rural Image of Slovak People and Land in the Interwar Period (1918-1939)
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2025 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | This paper examines how the image of Slovakia as a rural idyll was disseminated and circulated through photo postcards during the interwar period. After the end of World War I, Central Europe underwent a radical geopolitical transformation. Slovakia was no longer an integral part of Hungary but a state-forming nation with Czechs in the newly established democratic Czechoslovak Republic. The Slovak region, predominantly agrarian, was often portrayed as culturally immature, with its people leading traditional lifestyles, performing ancient crafts, preserving age-old agricultural practices, and maintaining a strong commitment to folk traditions. This kind of image of the Slovak land and people was widely disseminated through contemporary photographic postcards, using photographs taken mainly by Czech ethnographers conducting research in Slovak regions. Photo postcards, a popular medium that combines images with brief messages for postal distribution, provided an effective means for rapidly spreading visual representations that could influence public perception. For instance, idealised images of Slovak rural life were distributed by leading cultural and national institutions to Slovak immigrants in countries such as the USA, Yugoslavia, and Italy, reminding them of their roots and strengthening their national identity. Simultaneously, the Czechoslovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs utilised these postcards as promotional materials to boost local tourism. This paper, therefore, investigates the migration, circulation, and dissemination of idealised representations of Slovak rural life through photo postcards and analyses their impact on the country's image by addressing several key questions - How did the postcards shape the perception of a country? How did they communicate the idea of the country as a rural idyll? How did the postcards circulate? Who were the commissioners and consumers of these postcards? |
| Related projects: |