NA RUBE SPRÍTOMŇOVANIA IDEÁLU (MELANCHÓLIA V DISKURZE SLOVENSKÉHO LITERÁRNEHO REALIZMU)

The paper is focused on several ways of presenting melancholy in the discourse of Slovak literary realism – in the works by P. O. Hviezdoslav but mostly in the proses by S. H. Vajanský and M. Kukučín. Built on the latest research into the subject matter of interdisciplinary character, it deals with the dual presence of melancholy in the national revivalist narrative, which highlights the fundamental contradiction in Slovak literature of the 19th century oscillating between the ideal and its manifestations, i.e. the deficit of it in empirical experience. Despite the explicit marginalization, melancholy becomes a category showing deeper structural qualities of Slovak culture including Slovak literature in the 19th century, which is related to the nostalgic and utopian moments being the subject of numerous writings. It represents the „negative reality“ (L. F. Földényi), which reflects its efforts, ambitions and contradictions reaching beyond the actual era.