Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

In the nineteenth century, when many Central European nations were asserting their cultural identity and developing their national consciousness, the Slovak nation owed its own cultural “awakening” to a group known as the Stúr generation (Stúrovci). The group was led by L'dovít Stúr (1815–56), a scholar, teacher, Lutheran pastor, and politician. His contribution to Slovak national life was twofold: he is credited with the final codification of the Slovak literary language, and he led the political movement that set the Slovaks on a course of national self-determination over the next century and a half. Stúr entered Slovak literary and political life in 1828 when he became one of the founding members of the Czecho-Slav Society, a student organization committed to fighting the Hungarian government's policy of the forced assimilation of non-Magyar peoples through language suppression called Magyarization. On April 24, 1836, he led a group of students to Devín castle, where they pledged to dedicate themselves to the Slovak nation. He also published an almanac called Plody (Fruits), which marks the appearance of the Stúrovci in Slovak literary and political history. The Stúrovci were people who accepted Stúr's codification of the Slovak language and participated in his socialization project through drobná práca or “menial tasks,” which consisted of the creation of reading circles, ... log in or subscribe to read full text