BONDYHO BRATISLAVSKÁ EPIZÓDA

The introductory section of the article reconstructs the arrival of the Czech writer, philosopher and foremost member of underground culture, Egon Bondy (1930 – 2007) to Bratislava in 1993. There he became part of the city’s intellectual and cultural (literary, musical and artistic) life. The novella Epizódaʼ96 [Episode ʼ96] Bondy wrote in Slovak is an important contribution to the literary identity of the city. The article interprets the close relationship between Bondy’s narrator and space and also looks at the central topoi present in Bondy’s portrayal of Bratislava. He presents the city via “emptiness”. Diachronically, this means putting into spotlight some of the key episodes (unknown territories) of the weakened historical memory of the city (life and work of the sculptor F. X. Messerschmidt and the fates of the Jewish community). Synchronically, the author focuses on the structure of the city formed by socialist planning and on the empty spaces as natural spaces that to a great extent determine Bratislava’s genius loci (the Danube, the Little Carpathians).