The page of Rakús, Stanislav, English Reception
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Reception
[English] [Slovak]
ON THE AUTHORStanislav Rakús’s book A Song of Spring Water comes after an interval of three years from the long novella The Beggars, and unlike that book brings five short stories with a social theme and ballad tonality. The tonality of this prose is already familiar in the Slovak short story; some motifs may be coincident with many instances in modern Slovak prose (Jilemnický, Hronský, the writers of naturism; Jašik, Šikula), but in spite of this the author remains himself and his works are original statements on the theme of mankind, the age and society. Why is it like this? We think that his secret is based on his original treatment of the social theme that had been so often dealt with in literature. Rakús moves beyond the level of boldly drawn social relationships in that he attempts to reveal their psychic and moral consequences. Rakús’s narration is replete with folk tales, fables. various presentations, not so much in a continuous stream, but more within the individual requirements of realia, sketch and mood. In this way he creates an impression of mysteriousness. In this book he presents himself as the master of atmosphere... His work is characterized by a large measure of free fantasy, rather rare in Slovak prose. Rakús builds on associative rather than on logical or chronological motivation. In his prose we can hear a great number of often unidentifiable voices. All together try to create at least an approximately truthful picture of his selected fragment of reality. (Albín Bagin)
On reading Temporal Notes I had an overwhelming feeling of contact with an important prose work - important not only in the dimension of literary history, but noetically - and at the same time I felt an irritation with my own inability to identify the elements that create that significance. And it is certainly an accolade for the author that even on the second reading I was again arid again carried along by the stream of the author’s narration. (Pavel Vilikovský)
THE AUTHOR ON HIMSELF
I find that the combination of the work of a teacher, literary scholar and writer suits me, if for no other reason then because „pure writing”, the work in an office or study without regular contact with people and living reality narrows the width and richness of empirical material. The activity of a university lecturer is closely connected with research into literature. Papers and seminars bring stimuli, which would hardly appear in the silence of an isolated study at home. Moreover, what a person thinks about and analyses in solitude needs to be acted on from time to time and validated communicatively in special surroundings directed towards discussion.
