REALITY AND UTOPIA IN THE WORKS OF GEJZA VÁMOŠ

Abstract

Gejza Vámoš (1901 Dévaványa, Hungary – 1956 Muriaé Minas, Brazil) is one of the most remarkable Slovak writers of the interwar period. His life and literary work is similar to those of a number of European intellectuals of Jewish origin, who experienced otherness and alienation, and looked for strategies to overcome them. Despite the fact that the legislation in the Czechoslovak Republic in the interwar period supported religious equality, the stereotypes concerning the Jews and the doubts about their assimilation continued. Vámoš expressed his ideas about a new community in his doctoral dissertation in philosophy Princíp krutosti (The Principle of Cruelty) defended at Comenius University in Bratislava in 1932 as well as in his literary works, especially in the novels Atómy Boha (Atoms of God) (1928) and Odlomená haluz (Broken Branch) (1934). The former work challenges the idea of creation and perceives a doctor of medicine as a new prophet, whereas the latter one discusses the possibilities of Jewish assimilation and the problems of upbringing. Odlomená haluz was awarded a prize in Prague but at the same time Vámoš faced lawsuits and severe accusations related to some parts of the novel. In 1939, he left for China, and in the late 1940s, he moved to Brazil. New editions of his fiction appeared in Czechoslovakia in the 1960s, and after 1989, his work was included in the history of philosophical thinking in Slovakia.