Slovak literary criticism

TODAY, and apparently since yesterday, it is almost unknown in our country. We do not know the essence and functions of Czech and Slovak literary criticism, we do not know about its relations to literary theory and history and, of course, to aesthetics, as well as to sociology, psychology and philosophy, about its connections to cultural policy and the social situation. And the long-standing disputes and polemics, especially of the last ten years, would tell us a lot about its subject, method and criterion, about the contribution of literary critics, with a unique creative expression and with a sharp eye for general and characteristic tendencies of literary development in Czechoslovakia. It is necessary to present in our country this complex of problems of contemporary Czech and Slovak literary and critical thought, at least in the most characteristic creative expressions. It is naive to assume that it can be revealed in separate, moreover, so sporadic, reviews and surveys. Today, our access to authentic material can be facilitated by the History of Czechoslovak Literary Criticism, by a significant number of anthologies with selected articles, essays, critical and analytical studies by prominent Czechoslovak literary scholars and writers, and not least by the high literary-theoretical and critical level of today's Czech and Slovak literary journals."