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The article concentrates on some disctinctive modes of negotiation of Slovak identity within (and via) Slovak cinema of the past quarter of the century. Inspired by texts of A. Kiossev, H. K. Bhabha and M. Augé, it proposes a story of contemporary Slovak cinema as the cinema of the lack (of national identity). This lack is both metaphorically masked and metonymically recalled by various treatments of communal memory, and by various references to geopolitical location of the country, while national identity appears as lost between notions of the center and the margin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the commentary of Slovak political activist Ján Palárik regarding relations between Slovaks and Hungarians during the 1860s. Topics include Slovak nationalism in the context of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the development of Slovak national identity in opposition to the cultural assimilation of Slovaks, and political debate in Austria regarding changes to constitutional law. The relation of Palárik's political views to social structure is addressed, along with his use of symbolism in relation to the Hungarian Constitution.

The article presents a cultural and social history of sport in the Czech and Slovak Republics. Particular focus is given to the importance of the sport of gymnastics and its function in developing national identities for each region. The relationship between sports and politics, specifically during the Cold War era, is highlighted and the Sokol, or Falcon, gymnastics movement is explored. Developments and changes in sport historiography in the former Czechoslovakia and the ethnic diversity of Czech and Slovak society are examined.

An international study comprising 3230 university students from Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Austria, Germany and Poland examined the accuracy of Slovak national stereotypes. The accuracy of stereotypes was evaluated comparing ratings of typical Slovaks from the ingroup as well as outgroup perspective with ratings of real people living in Slovakia. We found that Slovak national stereotypes rated by Slovaks did not correspond with ratings of real Slovaks. The ratings of real Slovaks corresponded more with the ratings of Slovak national stereotypes by members of other Central European countries. Our findings indicate that national stereotypes can be based upon reflective judgment of real people living in the given nation. At the same time, ratings of group characteristics can be biased by other motivations, e.g. the tendency to evaluate one’s own group more favorably than outgroups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2005, the Slovak print and broadcast media discussed reality TV 'events' as avidly as anything from the fields of politics, economics or culture. While the majority of entertainment programming on Slovak television is of foreign origin, the arrival of reality TV programmes that involved the use of local and foreign 'ordinary' contestants in unscripted settings before the gaze of a directly participating national audience appeared to redefine Slovak media culture for that year. Following an examination of the central properties of reality TV that have determined its worldwide success with national audiences, the ways in which reality TV reflected Slovak society will be discussed. In the absence of any ethnographic research, this article refers to a range of contemporary mass media sources collected in Slovakia and accessed electronically to assess the characteristic properties and developments of reality TV programming in Slovakia, its national impact on Slovak media culture and its possible implications for national self-perception through an examination of the discourses that defined Slovak reality TV in its first year of broadcast. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an analysis on the political performance and national identity in Slovak Republic and on the effect of the European policy framework on Hungarian minorities in the country. It asserts that the national identity in Slovakia has been established on collective descent ties wherein the Slovaks have been regarded as an ethnic nation that refuses territorial citizenship principles. Accordingly, Slovakia's approach to ethnic Hungarian minority lies in dominatingly believed national myth. It notes that the Slovak's national salvation is viewed by the Hungarians as a national trauma. It argues that the reason behind Slovakia's limit to the occupancy of Hungarian minorities was due to the country's participation in the European Union (EU).