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Study area: Philology
Study programme: Slovak Literature
PhD studies are carried out in collaboration with Faculty of Arts of Comenius University in Bratislava.
More information about doctoral studies at the Slovak Academy of Sciences.
If you are interested in doctoral studies at our institute, we recommend you to contact your chosen supervisor in advance and consult with him/her about your thesis project.
List of approved dissertation topics for the academic year 2025/2026 in the study programme Slovak Literature, field of study Philology (full-time and part-time):
External educational institution: Institute of Slovak Literature of the Slovak Academy of Sciences
Mgr. Martin Braxatoris, PhD.: Ways of forming collective identities in older Slovak literature
The thesis will be based on the knowledge of the interrelation between narrative structures and collective identities. It will focus on selected works of early Slovak literature that served to defend and assert national and confessional (or other) collective identities. It will examine literary constructions of the origins, character and mission of a given community. Against the background of contemporary rhetorical theory, genre typology and the poetics of myth, the aim is to identify the literary strategies and practices that were used to defend and prove the legitimacy of the community and to praise its origins, significance and role.
Form of study: internal/external
Admission of one applicant
Mgr. Lenka Rišková, PhD.: Images of death in selected texts of old Slovak Literature
The motif of death is one of the dominant elements in the literary production of the older periods of development. Death is one of the most important moments in human existence, both religiously and psychologically, and its literary reflection is therefore a valuable source of knowledge about the way people think in different historical periods and stages of their lives. At the same time, the functional, genre and poetic syncretism of older literary monuments makes it possible to trace different ways of dealing with them, depending on the time of their creation or their attachment to particular aesthetic/poetic systems, but also on their genre classification, function or authorial intention. The aim of the research is to map the literary representation of this phenomenon and to trace its transformations in the literary-historical development from the earliest times to the beginning of the 19th century.
Form of study: internal/external
Admission of one applicant
Mgr. Ivana Taranenková, PhD.: Images of Masculine Vitality in Slovak Romantic Literature
The subject of the research will be the concept of vitality in Slovak Romantic literature about contemporary literary representations of masculinity. Based on the analysis of texts by Slovak Romantic authors and their setting in contemporary aesthetic, philosophical and social contexts, the dissertation will examine the relationship between vitality and the ideal of masculinity in Slovak Romanticism. It will also show how these ideas related to conventional/contemporary norms of masculinity and how they contributed to the literary imagery of Slovak Romanticism. The methodological starting point of the dissertation will be research on Romanticism in the national and international environment, as well as the impulses of gender studies (men’s studies).
Form of study: internal/external
Admission of one applicant
Mgr. Ivana Taranenková, PhD.: Motherhood in Slovak literature of the 19th century
This thesis will focus on literary representations of motherhood in Slovak literature of the long nineteenth century and explore their engagement with ideological and aesthetic contexts. The methodological starting point will be the analysis of the issue of motherhood in contemporary gender studies, taking into account the contemporary social and historical context. The research focuses on the forms of motherhood in literary texts realized in different literary poetics, their ideological background, as well as the gender perspective applied.
Form of study: internal/external
Admission of one applicant
Mgr. Michal Habaj, PhD.: “Enfants terribles” of Central European literature. Gejza Vámoš as a Type of Central European Writer-Philosopher
The dissertation aims to reconstruct the type of Central European writer-philosopher against the background of the social and political changes of the first decades of the 20th century. The research will focus on the work and personality of Gejza Vamos, which will be traced in the context of Slovak modernism and Central European literature, together with the work of Ladislav Klíma and Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz.
Form of study: internal/external
Admission of one applicant
Mgr. Michal Habaj, PhD.: Woman in Modernism
The thesis will focus on the image of women in Slovak literature of the interwar period, taking into account the cultural, social, ideological, and aesthetic contexts of the time. The research will focus on typological variations and forms of femininity as they are realised in literary texts of different poetics (decadence, secession, expressionism, poetism, proletarian literature, etc.) and ideological currents (nationalism, socialism). The starting point is the assumption that modernity has influenced the shape of traditional images of women and created new images that respond to the changed reality in different ways and depending on different environments.
Form of study: internal/external
Admission of one applicant
Mgr. Tomáš Horváth, PhD.: The Representation of Reality in Modernism
The research themes of the dissertation focus on the following areas: 1. the peculiarities of the modeling of the fictional world and the representation of reality in modernist texts (in contrast, for example, to the literary trend of realism); 2. the world as a psychic projection of the subject and the resulting implications for the construction of the fictional world: the persistent and uncertain character of reality, frequent motifs of hallucinations, dreams, penetration into another (sometimes transcendent) reality; 3. the problems of the representation of the literary subject and modernist themes: problems of the individual, mortal love, melancholy. It is also possible to choose a monograph on the work of one author, for example, Ivan Minárik, or to analyze selected texts by several authors.
Form of study: internal/external
Admission of one applicant
Mgr. Karol Csiba, PhD.: The writer/poet as a public role in the context of the first half of the 20th century
This dissertation aims to examine and analyze the specific form of the writer/poet’s functioning in different social roles in a selected historical context. The research will focus on a specific Slovak author and his or her work. The assignment is based on the assumption that creators are not only authors of literary texts but also participants in public life and part of cultural and social memory. The material basis of the work will be literary works, cultural and literary periodicals, and autobiographical genres.
Form of study: internal/external
Admission of one applicant
Doc. Mgr. Vladimír Barborík, CSc.: Normalisation prose – Prose of the Normalisation Period
The dissertation aims to reflect on the effects of the social changes that took place in Czechoslovakia at the turn of the 1960s and 1970s, i.e. to examine the impact of the external social conditions of the following two decades on the genre, poetological, thematic, and motivic, but above all on the ideological and value profile of Slovak prose of the normalization period. The field of research will be defined by prose works accessible in the contemporary public communicative space controlled by official structures.
Form of study: internal/external
Admission of one applicant
Internal PhD students:
Mgr. Barbora Zlejšia (since 2021) Topic: Lyrická próza Štefana Krčméryho / Lyrical Prose by Štefan Krčméry Supervisor: Mgr. Dana Hučková, CSc. Mgr. Romana Kališová (since 2022) Topic: Lyrický subjekt v poézii slovenskej moderny / The Lyrical Subject in the Poetry of Slovak Modernism Supervisor: Mgr. Dana Hučková, CSc.
Mgr. Šimon Čižmár (since 2023) Topic: Irónia, paródia, grotesknosť: slovenská nekonvenčná poézia po roku 1989 medzi provokáciou a kritikou / Irony, Parody, the Grotesque: Slovak Unconventional Poetry After 1989 Between Provocaton and Criticism Supervisor: Mgr. Ivana Hostová, PhD.
Mgr. Olha Norba (since 2023) Topic: Podoby šedej zóny na Slovensku v osemdesiatych rokoch 20. storočia: medzi oficiálnou a neoficiálnou literatúrou / The Forms of the Grey Zone in Slovakia in the 1980s: Between Official and Unofficial Literature Supervisor: Mgr. Radoslav Passia, Ph.D. Mgr. Nina Papcunová (since 2024) Topic: Príroda v modernizme / Nature in modernism Supervisor: Mgr. Dana Hučková, CSc. Mgr. Martin Pavlov (since 2024) Topic: Civilizačné a ekologické témy v slovenskej poézii sedemdesiatych a osemdesiatych rokov 20. storočia / Civilizational and Ecological Themes in Slovak Poetry of the 1970s and 1980s Supervisor: Mgr. Radoslav Passia, Ph.D.
External PhD students:
Mgr. Ľudmila Horká (since 2018)
Topic: Stvárnenie emócií v krátkej próze Mila Urbana / The Representation of Emotions in Milo Urban's Short Prose
Supervisor: Mgr. Karol Csiba, PhD.
Mgr. Petra Nagyová (since 2020)
Topic: Žena v naturizme / Woman in Naturism
Supervisor: PhDr. Jana Kuzmíková, CSc.
Mgr. Martina Péterová (since 2021) Topic: Marxistické literárnoteoretické koncepcie v slovenskej literatúre tridsiatych rokov 20. storočia / Marxist Literary Theoretical Concepts in Slovak Literature of the 1930s Supervisor: Mgr. Michal Habaj, PhD.