Forgotten Prosaic Works (Forming a Literary Image of the Holocaust in Slovak Literature of the 1940s and 1950s)

Abstract

The iconography of the Holocaust in Slovak literature between the late 1940s and mid-1950s was also created by texts that are almost forgotten today. The article discusses prosaic works by two Slovak writers. Some of these works belong to the early period of the Holocaust reception and some of them originated later. Literary history paid little or no attention especially to older works. One of the writers discussed in the article, Hela Volanská, disappeared from the literary life after 1970. The article discusses her works O živých a mŕtvych (On Those Who Are Alive and Dead, 1948) and Ako na cudzej svadbe (As at Somebody Else’s Wedding, 1987/2009). The other writer discussed in this article, Ľudo Zúbek, is an established name of Slovak literature, but is known mostly as an author of historical and biographical fiction, including a novel Jar Adely Ostrolúckej (Adela Ostrolúcka’s Spring, 1957), which is today incorrectly considered literature for young female readers. Other Zúbek’s works reached very little attention and acknowledgement. The article discusses his prosaic works Rozbitá dúha (Broken Rainbow, 1956) and Vltava (without date).