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Paper short abstract

Slovak writer E. J. Groch has introduced the concept of 'second naivety', in which human beings reduce their human selves in favour of spiritual and divine powers, most often represented by nature. In his work, he observes the process by which body diffuses and unifies with other natural creations.

Paper long abstract

In his work, Slovak writer Erik Jakub Groch (1957) presented the radical concept of 'Second Naivety' (2005), derived from religious practices of simplicity and minimalism as an alternative to the consumerism and materialism of the contemporary world. From the outset, the concept was closely associated with ecology as a moral quest and a display of compassion towards beings considered to be 'lower' than mankind. The concept has gradually undergone further development, and in Groch's later work Viety (2021), which translates as 'sentences brought by the wind', he begins to demonstrate self-observation of bodily diffusion and unification with other beings (trees, birds, insects, etc.). Through depoeticisation, he reaches the threshold between literature and mysticism. Reuniting with nature involves reduction and minimalism (in Groch's own words: 'It is essential to leave something out so that nature can describe itself'). Physically diminishing oneself allows one to transcend boundaries of body and move freely between the human narrator and other natural beings. Inner human emptiness is a prerequisite for acquiring new content from spiritual or natural realms. In the light of Latour's concept of agency, Groch challenges the human-centred, dominant perspective by pushing actants of nature to the most prominent position, which has a number of consequences, including showing a new order in which nature prevails in the world. The original paradox — analysing naivety is incompatible with being naive — is resolved in Groch's recent work by increasing emptiness (lack of syntax, sentences reduced to notes, etc.), allowing nature to describe itself.