Paradoxically, the huge social and political change did not cause an equally decisive upheaval in literature. As for the poetic work of previous times, more attention started to be paid to the poetry of Janko Silan and other poets of the Catholic Moderna, who had emigrated in the latter part of the twentieth century (R Dilong, K Strmeň and M Šprinc).
After 1989 poetry, like other areas of literature, was marked by strong individualisation, and consequently perhaps the most decisive change compared to preceding decades was a significant increase in spiritual poetry. A broad spectrum of spiritual poets and their programmes now emerged in the form of a large group of poets who brought spirituality and religion to the fore and openly varied their topics according to Christian (and more often than not Catholic) principles. Another group of poets, large in number and prolific in output, did not treat Christianity as an independent object, but devoted their work to an analysis of man and the world in its natural dependencies, even though religious principles were obvious from the author´s viewpoints and evaluations.
#6 A short retrospective of poetry after 1989 suggests that the greatest contribution to poetry was made by authors who entered literature in the 1960s – the Lonely Runners Group represented by J Buzássy or Ján Ondruš, who in 1996 released one of the key books of the decade, an updated edition of his preceding works entitled Prehĺtanie vlasu (‘Swallowing Hair’). Milan Rúfus (1928-2009), though one generation older, had not lost his position as a cultural and moral authority in Slovak poetry. In the 1990s and at the beginning of a new millennium he released several books of verse and essays. His poetry of unchangeable human values in the world and in front of God formed a narrowly-set circle, which the author had not renewed for several decades, however through his melodic verse he managed to evoke a feeling of anxious, sincere experience. Persisting with traditional values, he showed that ‘faithfulness’ to true values is at the time of their relativisation an expression of a real ‘man´s courage’ (D Podracká).
The ethical programme of I Štrpka, I Laučík and P Repka, also members of the Lonely Runners Group became up-to-date at the beginning of 1990s, when Slovak society and culture were seeking a new direction in a situation which had not yet become clear-cut. The three authors did not linger on their programme of the past, on the contrary they took an active role in seeking and positively influencing other poets of that time. Laučík´s ‘de-humanised’ (F Matejov) poetry depicting the world of mountains, caves and hostile north created a foundation for presenting different pressing human situations – the matter of morality vs the deaf world of nature and consequently of the human being, – as well as proving the values and strengths of man to acquit himself well in crisis situations (Na prahu počuteľnosti, ‘On the Threshold of Audability’, 1988, and Vzdušnou čiarou, ‘On a Flight Path’, 1991). In his last collection, Havránok (1998), he adds a geographical and historical link to human consciousness. Despite his dehumanisation Laučík becomes a poet of a culminating emotionality who points out to the human frailty endangered by our own ignorance and cowardice. I Štrpka took up some elements of the ‘open’ poetry which he had defended in the 1960s and developed it into a new processing poetry. The fragmentary character supported by a rich personal and cultural ‘memory’ is during the creative process transformed into a compact, internally-stratified unit. The poet often accentuates the state of a permanent as well as constant identity and communication crisis which he demonstrates by breaking up the poetic language. Unlike I Štrpka, P Repka created a new poetic programme in the 1990s based on confrontation of the present situation (personal and countrywide) with a generally valid message of a carnation which became the composition foundation for his poetic cycles. Repka, author of the famous reports from the 1960s, then resumes his analytical observations of the world (Že-lez-ni-ce, ‘Railways’, 1992, Priateľka púšť, ‘The Friend Dessert’, 1996, Karneval v kláštore, ‘Carnival in a Monastery’, 2002, and Relikvie anjelov, ‘Relics of Angels’, 2006).
Even though many leading poets fell silent in the 1990s, others found enough inspiration for a new culmination. J Buzássy can be ranked among those as he resumed writing his gnomic poetry marked by inner contradiction between his classicist clarity and romantic predetermination, not succeeding in reaching a final harmony. After his book of verse Náprava vínom(‘Remedy with Wine’, 1993) with reflexive cycles and the book Pani Faustová a iné básne (‘Mrs Faust and Other Poems’, 2001) containing poems of farce and comic character, Buzássy started writing a precise poetic diary in the form of bound quatrains (eg Dni, ‘Days’, 1995, Zátišie – krátky pôst, ‘Still Life – A Short Fasting’, 2004, Dvojkrídle dvere, ‘Two Wing Door’, 2006, and Bystruška, 2008).
#7 The best books written by women poets Dana Podracká and Mila Haugová appeared at this time. In the poetry of Podracká intimate human life gets confronted with an archetypal role of a man and a woman (as well as Man as a universal human being). The poetess makes use of the rich symbolics of myths and literature and through an intense immersion (sensual and analytical) she tries to define the substance of man which she finds the most important task (eg the collections Meno, ‘Name’, 1999, Kazematy, ‘Cassemates’, 2004, and Persona, ‘The Person’, 2007). Poetry by Mila Haugová attracted great interest in the 1990s, especially her collections Praláska (‘Protolove’, 1991), Nostalgia (1993), Dáma s jednorožcom (‘Lady with a Unicorn’, 1995) and others, where she writes her ‘deep monolithic message built in a documentary way’ (E Jenčíková). In the books by Haugová the concrete life experience is linked with the archetype of a ‘proto-woman’ creating a whole about cruelty and strength in the life of a woman.
Books of verse by Erik Jakub Groch and Peter Macsovszky are also much discussed. E J Groch is the author of several different collections linked by his strong accent on values and trust in simplicity, almost naivety, which is important not only in discovering the world, but also in saving man. In his first collections he gets inspired by poetry, philosophy and theology, creating however an imaginative language of his own based on repetitions, modifications and mild hyperbole. In his key book Druhá naivita (‘Second Naivety’, 2005), through the selection of older poems and several cycles of new texts, he clearly shows his Christian orientation. The Franciscan simplicity in describing the natural phenomena and human situations is ballanced by a conscious confrontation with post-structuralist philosophy and metaphysical character. Apart from Groch, literary scholars often speak about similar Christian orientation and modern intellectual expression in the verse of other poets such as Rudolf Jurolek, Igor Hochel, D Pastirčák, Marián Milčák, Peter Milčák, Ján Gavura and Joe Palaščák.
Poetry since 1945
AuthorJán Gavura