KONCEPCIE PROLETÁRSKEJ LITERATÚRY A SOCIALISTICKÉHO REALIZMU V MEDZIVOJNOVOM OBDOBÍ

The goal of the paper is to trace the way how socialist realism was developing and establishing in Slovak literature in the period of the first Czechoslovak republic (1918 – 1938) and to verify whether it is really an immovable monolith as the tradition goes in literary historiography. The methodological assumption is formed by the knowledge of contemporary historiography in line with departure from the established totalitarian terminology and inclination towards the problematic image of the First Republic and selected stimuli from the sociology of literature (Pierre Bourdie, Stefan Żółkiewski). At first socialist realism was developing in democratic conditions, its representatives were heard from marginal, anti-systemic positions and its reflection was wider, more critical and more resistant to political changes. It was only later, in the period of totalitarianism, that socialist realism transformed to an uncritically received dogmatic monolith. The paper presents two ways of understanding socialist realism: 1. as an open system capable of adopting various forms of art provided the condition of the socialist ideological basis or an author´s political affiliation was fulfilled; 2. as a system of prescribed rules and norms, subject matters and philosophical areas, dictated by the consensus of people holding leading political positions. By applying them, the paper shows a different, more varied form of the movement.