THE INNER EMIGRATION AS A GESTURE OF FREEDOM (DOMINIK TATARKA AND LUDVIK VACULIK AFTER 1968) ('Vnutorna emigracia' ako gesto slobody (Dominik Tatarka a Ludvik Vaculik po roku 1968))

The fundamental difference between the Slovaks and the Czechs after the political normalization in 1968 and later during the times of consolidation lies in the carriers of alternative culture and their contribution. There were self-educated intellectuals and university-educated scholars in Bohemia such as V. Havel, J. Grusa, L. Vaculik, J. Patocka or M. Machovec. However, these were rather thinkers than artists, who were in minority. In contrast, Slovakia had mainly artists and academics in various fields, to which they often remained confined, as well as catholic intellectuals (J. Korec, F. Miklosko, etc.). They published the results of their free analyses in Samizdat at the end of the 1960s. The only exceptions before 1968 formed discussion groups, which were organized under the name of a socialist institution and which went underground during the time of political consolidation, as well as the candle demonstration for religious freedom in Bratislava in 1988. Dominik Tatarka was the major figure of Slovak dissent. The study focuses on Tatarka's aesthetic and sociological essays about the genesis and history of the nation and on his authentic notes that bear witness to the times he lived in. The study also follows Tatarka's life after 1968. All manifestations of alternative culture in Slovakia have rather the character of artworks than of theories of artistic or political orientation. Although this artistic act had its function and impact, it was not subsequently used as an idea pool. Tatarka, with his 'action art', and using his own person - 'body art', had a great impact on engaging the masses of people, arousing their feelings, and sense of togetherness. The resistance movement against the political powers materialized in the form of an alternative art, in the visualization of thought in the unofficial visual arts. However, in Slovakia the artistic gesture remained without the subsequent interpretations that would verbally grasp the essence of the artistic accomplishment, that would comment on it as a stimulus, as a political action, and thus properly anchor its meaning.