Crossing the Boundaries of Time and Disciplines in the Literary and Historical Works of Anton Vantuch

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to reveal the interdisciplinary character of literary and historical works by Anton Vantuch (1921–2001), a Romance studies scholar, literary and cultural historian, and translator, whose studies on French literature and thinking has not been the object of a comprehensive reflection until recently. In his various works, the name of Enlightenment thinker Charles-Louis Montesquieu has a special place. His life and work formed a life-long interest for Vantuch in a number of studies and a monograph. Vantuch devoted special attention to Montesquieu’s travels and the genesis of his fundamental work De l'esprit des loix. This article deals with Vantuch’s research on Montesquieu’s travels in Upper Hungary (today’s Slovakia) that helped in discovering a number of new issues in an international context. The example of Vantuch’s in-depth analysis and work with sources in archives, combining philological, philosophical, and historical knowledge, clearly shows the methods of his work, which by crossing the boundaries of disciplines, epochs, and geographical spaces, represents the foundations of Romance studies in Slovakia.