Radovan Brenkus (born 30 January 1974, Bardejov) is a Slovak writer, translator and critic.
Biography
The author finished the study at Science faculty of P. J. Šafárik University, in mathematics and physics. He worked as a teacher in Košice, later as a specialist worker at the Institute of Experimental Physics of Slovak Academy of Sciences. He publishes in journals at home and abroad. Slovak Radio broadcast a lot of his works, which have been published in international anthologies. He translates works from Polish and occasionally undertakes literary criticism, writing a critical studies and essays. The author works in publishing house Pectus in Košice, which was founded in 2006.[1]
Creation
Brenkus is a continuator of literary modernism. In the field of poetry, he observes, analyses and decrypts the chaotic tired world, denounces the prevailing moral circumstances, the differences in its perception from without and within. The inspiratory sources are destructive emptiness, nothingness, limiting pseudo-being. By a symbology of pessimism and decadence, he shows the loneliness of the individual, his more worsening condition and uncertain future.[2]
The motive of his prose is a search for the meaning of existence, awareness of transience, death. Among other things, Brenkus writes in neo-romantic style, as well as criticizes existentialism and the civilizationprogress which forces a human to find his own survival instinct. Surrealistic characters in author's stories are torn between the ideal and the real, and disturb an accepted order. Through expressive and mystical symbolism, dramatic and grotesque scenes, Brenkus displays rebellion against elitism and decline of contemporary society. He provides a space for catharsis in the condensed and equally distinctive characteristics of the situations and characters.[3]
Works
Poetry
1997 – March of the Dead
2002 – Requiem in the Dust
2005 – Romance with a will-o'-the-wisp
2009 – Smoke from the Realm of Shadows
2015 – Dreaming with a Beast (2017, in Polish)
Prose
2005 – Hell Returns (2013, in Polish), short-story collection
Translations
2008 – Zbigniew Domino: Polish Siberiada
2009 – Rafał Wojaczek: Letters for Dead Man
2010 – Marta Świderska-Pelinko: Taste of Wandering and Eden
2017 – Marta Świderska-Pelinko: Where the Violin Cries
2020 – Janusz Korczak: Children of the Street
2021 – Aldona Borowicz: Stained Glasses in Memory
2023 – Maria Konopnicka: Under the Law
References
^Slovak Writers' Dictionary of the 20th Century (in Slovak) (2nd ed.). Bratislava: The Centre for Information on Literature. 2008. ISBN978-80-89222-48-3.
^Mikulášek, Alexej. "Modernism redivivus?". Obrys-Kmen (in Czech). 2003 (18). Praha: Union of the Czech Writers. ISSN1210-1494.
^Mikulášek, Alexej. "Brenkusiada ex inferno or "Somebody else is in the same situation"". Dotyky (in Slovak). 2006 (3–4). Bratislava: Slovak Writers' Society. ISSN1210-2210.
