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Visual Representations of "Self" and "Others": Images of the Traitor and the Enemy in Slovak
could engage more freely in political criticism thán could periodicals that were
explicitly political.
The cartoons in Cernokñaënik reveal an extraordinarily broad range of por¬
trayals of Otherness, relating to the period’s political developments in addition to
differences of gender, age, nationality, region, social position, and opinion among
residents of the Hungarian Kingdom and its surroundings.* Among the most fre¬
quent ethnic stereotypes appearing in Cernoknazntk are those that visualize the
Slovak (“ours”) and the Magyar (“the other,” or sometimes “the enemy”). The Slo¬
vak is above all a member of the lower classes (with a slender figure), is a peasant (in
traditional dress, with a shaven face and long hair), and is often referred to by the
familiar name Jano. He might be a wire tinker,’ a shepherd, a wandering singer, a
timber raftsman, or a beggar. In symbolic form he represents a poor, hard-working
people occasionally prone to song. In Slovaks’ concrete and symbolic self-image, re¬
gional differentiation is emphasized. This is reflected in the depiction of traditional
dress and in characters typical of specific regions, such as Upper Tren¢in, Kysuce,
Saris, Liptov (represented by broad-brimmed hats), or Detva (represented by dis¬
tinctive long braids and small hats). The Magyar, by contrast, is usually drawn in
these cartoons as a nobleman or a fat landlord in the typical outfit of the Hungar¬
ian nobility (the so-called diszmagyar coat), with a long mustache, and, unlike the
Slovak, who appears barefoot or in light leather shoes (krpce), the Magyar always
wears spurred boots. Among the images of the Magyar, however, we also see other,
more specific characters representatively named Pista,'° appearing for example as
a swineherd, which extend the regional and social variety of images representing
Magyars. After the year 1876," an additional dimension of the Magyar began to
appear in Cernoknaintk, the Magyar as enemy (irritable, shouting, domineering,
threatening Slovaks).
Another frequently appearing figure was that of the Jew (a typical representa¬
tive of “the foreign”). This figure is noteworthy for the degree to which it changed
in conjunction with the changing roles it presented in concrete cartoons, and with
which it revealed and modified the character of “the other.”
§ The issues surrounding these other differences, however, lie beyond the scope of this paper.
° Wire tinker, or drotdr—a travelling craftsman who could repair broken ceramic ware with iron
wire, which he also fashioned into housewares to be sold. The profession was almost unique to ethnic
Slovaks. There was, however, a Hungarian term for the profession (pejorative and ironical): drétostét
(translator's note).
10 Pista—Slovak spelling of Pista, a familiar form of the common Hungarian name Istvan (Stephen)
(translator's note). Pita (Pista) and Jano (Jané) were typical figures used both in Slovak and Magyar
caricatures.
" This was when the publication of Cernoknaänik was renewed under the changed editorship and also
under the changed political circumstances—as we explain in the next section.
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