The aim of study is to analyse essential poet logical aspect of Jan Francisci’s autobiography. Already published source materials and narratological and historiographical secondary literature were used in the process of composing the study. It is mainly focused on the problem of vague genre status of the text in which structure autobiographical and historiographical narrative strategies are alternating. The most substantial issue is the transformation process of historiographical techniques into the text with autographical frameworks and the technique of modification of historiographical perspective into subjective (autobiographical) form in this type of texts. Interpretations which explain subject matter and topic of this text result from the problem mentioned above. The second substantial problem is subjects capturing and its role in the text since it is one of the crucial categories with respect to genre. According to the analyses mentioned in the study the subject captured in Vlastný životopis (My Autobiography) appears peripheral, de-psychologized, without adequate individual attributes and thus as a subject without a concept of autonomous identity. Peripheral status of subject in Francisci’s Autobiography is closely related to predominant historical and social context which represents main story line of thinking. Considering this fact we would like to imply the question whether the structure of the text is not closer to memoirs than to autobiography. Besides these the study touches upon a category of narrator, his competency and position in relation to the reader.
The study is an attempt to write a view of Francisci´s poetry compiled in the collection Iskry zo zaviatej pahreby /Sparks of the Overlaid Embers/, against the background of Štúr´s ideas of Slavic poetry formulated in Prednášky o poézii slovanskej /Lectures on Slavic Poetry/ and his essay O národných povestiach a piesňach plemien slovanských /On National Myths and Songs of Slavic Nations/. In addition to that, some of the characteristic features of Francisci´s poems are confronted with the similar features present in the poetry of other Romantic poets. The analysis of Francisci´s poems and their confrontation with Štúr´s ideas as well as the list of conventional means of expression used in the poetry of the particular period make the author of the study conclude that in spite of fulfilling Štúr´s requirements and following the fast-spreading conventions, Francisci´s works also contain strictly individual layers which incline towards what was officially rejected – individual feelings, personal sadness, sentiment, being in love, Romantic contempt for the world and some elements of Messianist nature.
The second lives of significant people, being remembered or not being remembered depend on a number of reasons and factors. They affect how and how often their lives and works are reflected on in the press, the re-editions are published and the commemorations and celebrations are held. The memories of the personalities seen by a national community as their representatives are some of the essential features of each nationalism. Such a memory is encouraged by commemorating them during various events and by placing them in the contexts reflecting the contemporary political needs. These needs have influenced the process of forming the individual layers of the memory of Ján Francisci (1822 – 1905), who was one of the leading figures amongst the national activists between the 1840s and the1890s. In case of Ján Francisci the most vivid memory is that of his appearance. Owing to several paintings capturing him in all the periods of his life, Francisci is usually presented as the epitome of the virtues of the Štúr generation, i.e. beautiful both in body and mind, dedicated to the national issues and the ideals of the national life. Another layer of the memory is related to his activities as the captain of the Slovak volunteers in the Revolution of 1848 – 1849. The credit he really deserves for the initiatives in the Memorandum movement, and establishing and managing the Matica slovenská is overshadowed by the memories of the first chairman Bishop Štefan Moyzes and the vice-chairman Karol Kuzmány, although the recorded agendas of the both national enterprises show a whole lot of organizational work done by Francisci. What is even less remembered is his organizational work in the student groups of the 1940s, although his leadership is accented it is usually only stated as a fact and left without argumentation. Similarly “poor” is the memory of his editorial activities in the Pešťbudínske vedomosti. The poorest is the layer of the memory of Ján Francisci´s activities during his Martin period of life, i.e. from the 1870s. He worked there as the manager of the Book Printing joint stock association organized the publishing of the literature in Slovak but this wide range of activities has not become part of the memory of Ján Francisci. The article draws attention to the selective and potentially manipulative approach, which is a side effect of the process of forming the memories of the personalities who are seen as the creators or the characters of the story of the nation.
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