The Elephants in Mauthausen (Slony v Mauthausene)

Abstract

About the Author: Ján Johanides (1934–2008), a Slovak prose writer and essayist, belonged to the 1960s generation. He came from a Lutheran family, his ancestors had emigrated from Moravia to Slovakia because of their faith. He studied at the Faculty of Arts in Bratislava, but was excluded from the faculty, due to his behaviour which was considered as “inconsistent with the morality of socialist society”. His literary work was inspired by existentialism as well as by the French Nouveau Roman. After the suppression of the Prague Spring, between 1972 and 1976, he was unable to publish. The fictional world in his literary works is very complex, sophisticated and provocative. That is true of his late works in the 1980s and 1990s which often include Jewish topics. The Shoah and fate of the Jews are represented by the viciousness and unpredictability of the modern world in Ján Johanides’ prose. The plots of his short stories and novels are filled with allusions, digressions, reminiscences, and anticipations. The realistic scenes of everyday life are intermixed with scenes of grotesqueness, unexpected brutality (murders and suicides) as well as dreams. Johanides’ characters, mostly outsiders or bizarre figures, are frequently unclear and enigmatic. The point of view is very limited. The plot is often full of contradictions, gaps and mysteries. Readers can perceive just a part of the characters’ complex and intricate minds.