The Famous Men – the Protagonists of the Prose by Štefan Krčméry (The Winter Legend)

Abstract

Krčméry's Winter Legend is an expression of his relationship to the nation, to life (also to his own), to history and, above all, to literary history. The uncon-ventionality of the genre form (i.e. biographical prose - sketch) does not contradict the thought and empirical content. Although the author's approach to the fate of historical figures is realized mainly due to aesthetic contact with the reader, he also elevated this communication to a non-aggressive opposition to "revolt against historicism" among young artists, whose goal was the "negation of national existence". With the help of imagination, knowledge, contemporary knowledge, and the typical "it was said", it offers alive images of famous men (e.g. Svätopluk, King Matiáš, J. Silván, D. Krman, M. Bel, J. Hollý , J. Kollár, Ľ. Štúr, P.J. Šafárik, A. Sládkovič) and events (e.g. Prešov slaughterhouses from the second half of the 17th century, the Battle of Poltava, Slavonic Congress).