The page of Vášová, Alta, English biography
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Biography
ALTA VÁŠOVÁ (1939), science-fiction prose writer, film, television, theatre, radio script writer and writer for children. Her first collection of short prose Recording the False (Zaznamenávanie neprávd, 1970) brings the problems of the existence of contemporary people. After an experimental book Place, Time, Cause (Miesto, čas, príčina, 1972), she started to write sci-fi novels. The novel After (Po, 1979), where, apart from typical sci-fi themes, she managed to play with signification in a very contemporary manner and to analyse relations of contemporary individuals. In a short novel Festival of the Innocents (Sviatok neviniatok, 1992), Vášová deals with the need for love and creation as opposed to the destructive elements in the history of mankind. She published an autobiographical diary Digressions (Úlety, 1995), marked by a strange fragmentary reverse chronology and a collection of short stories Lotteries (Osudia, 1995). The book is a mix of genres, containing autobiographical prose, essays, poetry in prose, ecological reports, documentary recordings. The issues of emotional female experience of family life, intellectual, philosophical and reflexive elements dominate here. In a novel Skin-tight (Natesno, 1997) Vášová discloses the often avoided problems of after-the-war history of ethnic Hungarians in Southern part of Slovakia. She describes the reality of the communist regime and the way people suffered from its consequences, and for this reason she uses the metaphor of “skin-tight living“. She writes television, film and radio scripts. Her novel After (Po, 1993) came out as an uncensored edition of the novel from 1979. Vášová is also the author of children' s books, putting emphasis on partnership, empathy, sensitivity, e. g. Someone Like Me (Niekto ako ja, 1990), Big Girls, (Veľkáčky, 1978), Lelka from the Bureau (Lelka zo sekretára, 1992). Well-known are also her scripts for television, film and radio, e. g. Sweet Games of Last Summer (Sladké hry minulého leta, 1969), based on Maupassant’s short story Little Fly). She wrote the libretto to the succesful musical A Suburban Cyrano (Cyrano z predmestia, 1977). Vášová is an intellectuel author with high sensibility and sharp perception, sensitive conscience and imaginative, free thinking.
