Slovak literature is the literature of Slovakia.
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The first monuments of literature in present-day Slovakia are from the time of Great Moravia (from 863 to the early 10th century). Authors from this period are Saint Cyril, Saint Methodius and Clement of Ohrid. Works from this period, mostly written on Christian topics include: poem Proglas as a foreword to the four Gospels, partial translations of the Bible into Old Church Slavonic, Zakon sudnyj ljudem, etc.
The medieval period covers the span from the 11th to the 15th century. Literature in this period was written in Latin, Czech and slovakized Czech languages. Lyric (prayers, songs and formulas) was still controlled by the Church, while epic was concentrated on legends. Authors from this period include Johannes de Thurocz, author of the Chronica Hungarorum and Maurus. The worldly literature also emerged and chronicles were written in this period.
The character of a national literature first emerged in the 16th century, much later than in other national literatures. Latin dominates as the writing language in the 16th century. Besides the Church topics, antique topics, related to the ancient Greece and Rome.
Slovak Classicism was part of the larger European neo-Classicist movement of the Enlightenment. The rise of nationalism in the aftermath of the French Revolution gave rise to a literature of national revival. Until the mid nineteenth century, Slovak was generally written in the form of Czech, with various degrees of Slovakization.[1] Anton Bernolák's Gramatica Slavika used a West Slovak dialect as the standard written form, a transitional step to modern literary Slovak, but ultimately a failure. Even so, significant works were published using Bernolák's standards, beginning with Juraj Fándly's 1879 Dúverná zmlúva medzi mňíchom a ďáblom (An intimate treaty between the monk and the Devil). Lutherean Slovaks like Augustin Dolezal, Juraj Palkovič and Pavel Jozef Šafárik tended to prefer a common Czech-Slovak identity and language.
Pan-Slavic unity served as the template for many poems of this period. Ján Kollár's collection of 150 poems, Slávy Dcera, glorifies pan-Slavic ideals in three cantos named after the Sala, Elbe and Danube. Jan Holly's epic poem Svätopluk, published in 1833, serves as the most significant text of the period.[2]
As a result of the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and subsequent establishment of Czechoslovakia, the sociolinguistic pressures of Magyarization disappeared.[3] During the interwar period, the preeminence of poetry gave way to prose.[4] Milo Urban's 1927 work Živý bič (The Living Whip) and Jozef Cíger-Hronský's 1933 novel Jozef Mak both focused on the village, and the nature of change. During the turbulent years of the Slovak Republic and reestablishment of Czechoslovakia, two separate literary movements dominated, the lyrical prose of Hronský, Ľudo Ondrejov and Margita Figuli, and the Slovak surrealists.
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