Kissing the naked Novomeský (an interpretative probe into an unpublished chapter from Janko Silan’s book Dom opustenosti [House of abandonment])
Janko Silan (1914 – 1984) did not live to see the publication of his novel House of Abandonment. Although he actively pursued its publication, especially between 1970 and 1974, the text could not be published during the period of normalisation in the totalitarian Czechoslovakia. The work was officia...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | ces |
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Slovak Academy of Sciences, Institute of Slovak Literature
2025-02-01
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| Series: | Slovenska Literatura |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.sav.sk/journals/uploads/02052041SL_01-25-02.pdf |
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| Summary: | Janko Silan (1914 – 1984) did not live to see the publication of his novel House of Abandonment. Although he actively pursued its publication, especially between 1970 and 1974, the text could not be published during the period of normalisation in the totalitarian Czechoslovakia. The work was officially made available to readers only after the socio-political changes of 1989, first in 1991 and later in an expanded edition in 1997. Even though he was unable to publish the book, Silan continued writing, adding further chapters to the novel. This corpus of texts is preserved in his literary estate in the Literary Archive of the Slovak National Library in Martin under the title House of abandonment – unpublished chapters of the novel. Among these texts is a previously unpublished fragment When we entered there…, which is unique in the context of the works of Slovak Catholic modernists as it explores the theme of two people of the same gender kissing, both of whom were prominent figures in the literary life of the time (the author of the text Janko Silan and the poet Laco Novomeský). This article aims to interpret the text, particularly through the lens of the cultural perception of the kiss and to outline certain aspects of the relationship between Silan and Novomeský. |
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| ISSN: | 0037-6973 |