Circumlocution technique as a marker of identity search in modern Slovak literary works

Abstract

Modern Slovak literature is nationally oriented. One of the frequent issues in the works of Slovak authors is the search for national identity. This issue is considered by writers explicitly, for example, in the story by Pavel Vilikovský “Všetko, čo viem o stredoeurópanstve” (1996, “Everything I know about Central Europeanism”), in the story by Michal Hvorecký “Profesionálny Stredoeurópan” (2004, “Professional Central European”); and implicitly, for example, in the novels of Peter Krishtufek “Šepkár” (2008, “The Prompter”), “Dom hluchého” (2012, “The House of the Deaf Man”), in the novels of Irena Brezhna “Na slepačích krídlach” (2007, “The Best of the Worlds”), “Nevďačná cudzinka” (2012, “The Thankless Stranger”), etc. These works contain various kinds of linguistic markers that express the author's position. These can be realia lexemes, foreign language inclusions, non-literary vocabulary, etc. The paper examines one of the elements that unite all the above-mentioned works — namely, the method of сircumlocution. Describing the situation in Slovakia, the authors in the above fiction works do not name their country, cities, people and language directly, instead giving only their descriptive designation. This technique can be viewed as a linguistic marker of the search for national identity.