A Black Solstice (Čierny slnovrat) Author: Klára Jarunková First Published: 1979 Translations: Hungarian (Fekete napforduló, 1981); Czech (Černý slunovrat, 1984); Ukrainian (Čorne soncestojannja, 1985). Film Adaptation: Čierny slnovrat, TV film; screenplay Ondrej Sliacky, film director Ivan Teren, premiered 25 March 1985. About the Author: Klára Jarunková (1922–2005) was born in Červená Skala in the Slo- vakian mountains Low Tatras. When she was eight years old, her mother died. She graduated from the high school in Banská Bystrica, she never finished her studies of Slovak and philosophy at Comenius University in Bratislava. From 1940 to 1943, she worked as a teacher near her birthplace. After the war, she was a clerk, an editor for the Czechoslovak Radio and the satirical magazine Roháč. She wrote many successful books for children and novels for girls and teenagers. They were often translated into foreign languages. The basis of the fictional world of her works is often a confronta- tion between children and adults as seen through children’s eyes. Content and Interpretation The novel, consisting of 16 chapters, is situated in Central Slovakia, Banská Bystrica and its surroundings, at the end of World War II, from November 1944 to March 1945. The historical background of the plot is the Slovak National Uprising against the clerofascist regime in Slovakia connected with Hitler’s Germany. The heart of the up- rising was Banská Bystrica. The uprising broke out at the end of August 1944, but the Nazi army, supported by Slovak collaborators, started a counter-offensive. At the end of October 1944, German troops had also taken Banská Bystrica. Although the resis- tance was largely defeated by German forces, guerrilla partisan operations continued until the Soviet Army entered Slovakia. In the foreground of the plot is the Malatinec family, the mother Berta and her three daughters, Anna, Pavla and Zuzka. The father has died during the war; he was a railway worker and opponent of the Slovak clerofascist regime. The oldest daughter Anna returns home from Bratislava where she had been studying philosophy at the university. Her boyfriend Julo joined the Hlinka Guard, so Anna broke up with him. (The Hlinka Guard was the Fascist militia in Slovakia from 1938 to 1945. Its members appropriated Jewish property and rounded up Jews for deportation.) The middle daughter, working nearby in Podbrezová as an accountant, sympathises with the communists and helps secretly partisan fighters in the mountains. The youngest Zuz- ka is only eleven years old and often is suffering from bronchitis. Open Access. © 2021 Jiří Holý, published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110671056-008 A Black Solstice (Čierny slnovrat) 67 When the uprising broke out, many people who had been persecuted by the Slo- vak Fascist state returned to Banská Bystrica. There were also three Jews from Bystrica among them who had fled from the labour camp in Sereď in West Slovakia. They were accommodated in the flat of widow Malatincová. Before German soldiers entered By- strica, Jews had escaped into the mountains. Nevertheless, one of them, Estera Ro- senkranz, later secretly returned. She says that German soldiers had been bombing and shooting them. Her sister had been killed and her brother-in-law had disap- peared. Estera asks Berta Malatincová for help. She agrees and hides her in the flat, even though she and her daughters are threatened with execution for it. The Malatinec family is supported by Marko Kráner, a communist and worker, who is involved in the resistance. All the while, Lauko, a local Hlinka Guard leader and informer is living in the same building. He suspects that someone is hiding here. Moreover, Dutchman Willy van Lee, a Nazi soldier in SS uniform, regularly comes to the flat. All of them are afraid of him, but Willy behaves friendly. Later Pavla and Mar- ko Kráner realise he is a deserter. Estera Rosenkranz leaves the flat at night and walks around the town. She be- comes dangerous for the family and the whole household. Kráner decides to move her to the countryside. However, one morning Estera does not return. Anna is visited by her former boyfriend Julo, now a high-ranking member of the Hlinka Guard. He asks her to run away abroad with him. Anna rejects him harshly and she is almost immediately attacked and injured by SS soldiers. Berta Malatincová takes care of two little Slovakian boys, her nephew Peter and his friend Laco, who have fled from concentration camp transport. The dramatic situation culminates during the Christmas celebration (similar to Peter Karvaš’s play The Midnight Mass, 1959, also set in Slovakia during the Christmas of 1944). Three Nazi officers come to the Malatinec flat where the two boys are hiding and they even meet Willy here. Fortunately, they only want to sing Christmas songs. Willy tries to find a resistance group to join, but he is caught and killed. Pavla leaves home and joins the partisans in the mountains, however, she also dies. The rest of the family survives the war. The point of view changes throughout the story. For instance, chapters five, eight, nine and part of eleven are narrated from Pavla’s perspective, who works and lives in Podbrezová. Other parts of the novel are narrated from her mother’s or sisters’ (Anna’s as well as Zuzka’s) perspectives. Nevertheless, the main character of the story is the figure of Berta Malatincová. Originally a pious and humble mother, who only wants to protect her daughters, she becomes a confident woman that helps other people. She follows her own conscience, not external laws or regulations. Jewess Estera Rosenk- ranz is rather a marginal figure. Unlike Berta Malatincová and her family, Estera comes from a higher social class. She offers money and property for hiding in the Ma- latinec flat. She can not understand that Berta refuses it and only helps her because of moral principles (“they are things that can not be paid for”). 68 Entries Main Topics and Problems Klára Jarunková used some autobiographical motifs and her own experiences in this novel. She spent her childhood and youth near Banská Bystrica and in this town. During the war, she worked as a teacher there. In this story, the time of the war, the Holocaust and the Slovak National Uprising are presented without heroism, monu- mentality and pathos typical for most literary novels on these subjects. The everyday life of a common Slovak family is in the foreground. The title A Black Solstice refers to Christmas as the time of the winter solstice but also as the chilly, dark atmosphere of the war. Like in her other stories, Jarunková uses a child’s view in the character of Zuz- ka. Zuzka’s perception of reality is authentic and naive but also limited. On the other hand, extreme situations during the war speed up her mental maturation and she becomes a “young adult”, similar to other characters of children in Holocaust literature. See Lustig’s → Diamonds of the Night, Grynberg’s →The Jewish War,J.R. Pick’s → Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Dichter’s → God’s Horse or Šikula’s → The Lilies of Erika. Nevertheless, Zuzka’s perspective does not dominate the novel. The hiding of Jews is a common topic of Holocaust literature. See Otčenášek’s → Romeo and Juliet and the Darkness, → The Jewish War or → God’s Horse. However, in this case, Estera Rosenkranz is not only perceived as a helpless victim of the Shoah, but similar to other characters in Slovak or Polish literature (i.e. Samko Weimann in Jašík’s → St. Elizabeth’s Square), she is also characterised by traditionally negative Jewish qualities: she is greedy, distrustful and ruthlessly pragmatic. The character of Willy van Lee, an SS man, belongs to the type of the “good Ger- man” (although he is actually Dutch), see the officer in Szpilman’s → The Pianist or in Mňačko’s → Death Is Called Engelchen. In world cinema this character type appears, for instance, in Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List (1993) or in Roman Polanski’s adap- tation of Szpilman’s book (2002).These characters stay in contrast to the usual por- trayal of Nazis as one-sided negative figures. On the other hand, the character of Willy seems to be rather implausible. Also some narrative and stylistic devices seem to be more conventional (Germans are compared to wolves etc.). The film adaptation eliminated some scenes and characters, for instance Pavla’s work in Podbrezová and the little boys Peter and Laco. Cited Work Jarunková, K. (1979). Čierny slnovrat. Bratislava: Slovenský spisovateľ. Further References Kopál, J. (1997). Dvojjedinnosť pohľadu mladých a nadhľadu dospelých v prozaickej tvorbe Kláry Jarunkovej. Bibiana, 5(1), pp. 11–14. Marčok, V. (2006). Jarunkovej epický svet jako permamentné pozývanie k sebatvorbe. In: V. Marčok, Autori a ich svety. Mar- tin: Matica slovenská, pp. 140–173. Marčok, V. (2015). Svetová Klára Jarunková: Skice k A Black Solstice (Čierny slnovrat) 69 portrétu. Bratislava: Spolok slovenských spisovateľov. Noge, J. (1979). Próza Kláry Jar- unkovej. Bratislava: Slovenský spisovateľ. JH.
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