The paper focuses on the question of constants and new scientific findings in the discussion of the constitutive literary period of the mid-19th century in Central Europe. The starting point is a discussion or review article entitled “Slovak Romanticism” by Viktor Smolej, published in Jezik in slovstvo in 1956. It highlights four theses, which I will discuss and point out how they are addressed in the contemporary literary discourse of Slovak and foreign researchers. The discussion of Romanticism through time, particularly in the key, most frequently discussed works and authors (Ľudovít Štúr, Janko Kráľ) proves to be a relevant presentation of various methodological approaches, from positivism and the biographical method to structuralism and the contemporary so-called synoptic-pulsation map of the literary process. A comparison of the reception of Slovenian and Slovak Romanticism, which I address marginally, will serve to illustrate the process of canonization in both literatures, which also raises the question of high-quality translations into foreign languages and the accessibility of classic works of national literature.
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