Historical Bratislava in Literary Fiction and Film Adaptation

Dominika Hlavinová Tekeliová, Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Slovakia,        Abstract: The aim of the paper is to characterize the city of Bratislava after the First World War as a literary space in the short story Worst Crime in Wilson City (Najhorší zločin vo Wilsonove) and its film adaptation Wilson City (Wilsonov). For millions of Czechs and Slovaks, US President W. Wilson was a legendary figure. Multi-ethnic city wanted to gratify him and suggested to name this free and independent city after him. This short episode of our history was interesting for Slovak writer Michal Hvorecký, who set a mysterious (horror) short story in Wilson City (Bratislava). Topos of the city became the basic organizational, respectively, structural element on which the story is built. In the film adaptation of Czech director Tomáš Mašín there was a shift in the genre and the film is a detective comedy, or parody of historical events that happened (or could have happened). The paper focuses on the motif of the city, compare this urban space in the literary and film form. It tries to answer the question whether the city – space is only the backdrop of the story or it becomes its (role)player.

Key words: Bratislava, Wilson City, Literary Work, Film, Adaptation.