TALIANSKE CESTY GUSTÁVA KAZIMÍRA ZECHENTERA - LASKOMERSKÉHO

The study titled The Italian Travels of Gustáv Kazimír Zechenter - Laskomerský researches the particularities of Italian travels as a phenomenon in the work of the author in question in the context of other authors´ travelogues written in the 19th century as well as the differences between the individual Laskomerský´s travelogues. Laskomerský eliminated the ideological and romantic influences in the genre to a great extent, strengthened its informative-educational aspect and enlivened it with a style containing anecdotes and other humorous elements. As can be seen in the study, though, the travelogue Zo Slovenska do Ríma /From Slovakia to Rome/ is different from the other travelogues by Laskomerský. Its analysis and comparison with the author´s autobiography helps us find out that the reason why it is different is fictitiousness – so far unnoticed by its interpreters, which made the travelogue feel overloaded with travel-guidebook-like information, and, on the other hand, revived the national aspect characteristic of the Romantic discourse. Empiricism is important for Laskomerský´s work regardless of genre; may it be absent anywhere it is substituted by ideology. This proves the author´s interposition between the two types of literary discourse.