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My name is Zuzana Karasová; I was born in 1954 and educated in Bratislava, the capital of the Slovak Republic. I took an M.A. in the History of Art in 1984. From 1984 to 1987, I was an expert worker in the Institute for the Care of Monuments, and for five years I was a lecturer at the Slovak National Gallery in Bratislava, while ever since 1980 I have specialized in the care of nineteenth century monuments. Now I work as an independent art historian and writer.

A Self-Portrait

I was born twice-twenty-five-and-five years ago in Bratislava in former Czechoslovakia. Maybe I could have begun the attempt at a self-portrait with Aristotle and his notion of a pulsing point from which life comes out. Nobody did know, anyway, what kind of a personality came into the world on that sunny day of 24th October 1954.

When I was recently reading Jean-Paul Sartre and his essay about Jean Genet, I realized very clearly that he is right when he says that ‘Genet is us’, and therefore it is unnecessary to describe my own childhood and early youth.

I am only aware that my first attempt to escape from the Genet issue – all the alternatives of the guilty side – was my decision to study art-history at the Faculty of Philosophy in Bratislava. The metamorphosis occurred almost instantly when I fell in love with architecture. Yet architecture has represented for me something special in the world that cannot be charged with crimes. By the way, maybe I am wrong on this point, especially after having read a part of deconstructionist theories by Bernard Tschumi, such as The Manhattan Transcripts, or, Architecture and Disjunction (1994). Therefore, what really mattered?

When I was passing as a lecturer almost daily through the corridors and halls of a gallery displaying artworks from various periods, I can say that I felt their emanation and their aura. Maybe it is metaphysics; maybe it is just my aesthetic sensitivity. If any one asked me why I liked art and the luxury of its harmony, I could only answer that it made me feel satisfied.

Well, as for me now, I exist by faith and strength of will. A chain of bad circumstances in my life caused that at the very beginning of 2003 I made a leap of faith. Something similar to what Kierkegaard calls the transition from one quality to another. It seemed that the difficulties I had to face back then had been endless. I desired to live in a different place and I was unable to do it. Therefore, I decided that from that time onwards I would write exceptionally in the English language. At the same time, I realized also that I had turned a little academic over the years and that my life might well have taken an entirely different course and it did.

In 2003, I started working on both my later books in English not to mention two other still unpublished essays on murals and ruins.

My first book entitled Personal Prison Letters or Mooning over the Garden was published two years later, in July 2005, by AuthorHouse. It is an epistolary novel, a love story, about my long-term relationship with an imprisoned American man. He gave me the nickname Suzie Q, after a song by Dale Hawkins, which was performed in the late 1950s or early 1960s, and I decided to retain the ‘Q’ in my penname.

My second book entitled Lucy’s Uncommon Companion was published in August 2009 by Choice Publishing, Ireland. It took me quite a long time to complete this book as it is a historical novel and I had to make quite extensive research. So I had been working on it almost six years. It tries to fight against the illusions of history by creating a different illusion of history. It is based on the premise that history has never gone away. Its literary time is not successive but rather pulsating in a rhythm like that of a movie.

My third book Miscalculated Feelings is being published currently by Choice Publishing, Ireland. Originally, I wanted it to be set in Bratislava. During the course of my working on the book, I had changed my mind however and decided upon the name Atlantis. It is a poetic story about a man’s cross-English-Channel search for personal regeneration pieced together via persons he encounters there eventually sleeps with.

Zuzana ‘Q’ Karasova

(A poem written by my friend,

Mr Colin John Bridge in 2004 )

At her computer there she sits

Compiling facts using her wits.

Research researching into time

On ancient buildings most sublime.

Making notes and writing themes:

However, who knows her hopes and dreams?

Mother, artist, and a cook,

She likes to rest and read a book

Loves to walk upon the beach

Also learning foreign speech

A member of the Catholic creed

Collects plants, some grown from seeds.

Lives up in a high rise flat

Sometimes likes to wear a hat

Determined patient and strong willed

Yet with patience also filled

With many talents to expand:

This lady from the Slovak land.

MY CREDO:

‘Our well-being is nothing but the not being ill.’

- Montaigne

© Zuzana Karasová, 2013

List of Published Works:

1. Ideové východiská obnovy pamiatok v 19. storočí [The Ideological Sources of Nineteenth-Century Monuments´ Restoration]. Monumentorum Tutela/Ochrana pamiatok 13 (Bratislava, 1988), 407-427.

2. Imrich Henszlmann a pamiatková starostlivosť [Imrich Henszlmann and the Care of Monuments]. Pamiatky-Príroda No.5, vol. XIX, 1988, 28-29.

3. Imrich Steindl. Pamiatky-Príroda No.4, vol. XX, 1989, 24-25.

4. Imrich Steindl. Projekt-Revue slovenskej architektúry, No. 7-8, 1990, 58-59.

5. Pamiatková starostlivosť 19. storočia ako jeden z prejavov historizmu. Reštaurátorský purizmus [Nineteenth-Century Care of Historical Monuments as one of the Manifestations of Historicism. The Problem of Purism in Restoration]. ARS – Journal of the Institute for History of Art of Slovak Academy of Sciences 3, 1991, 203-213.

6. Dekoratívne nástenné maľby na klenbe Dómu sv. Martina v Bratislave [Decorative Mural Paintings on the Vault in St. Martin's Cathedral in Bratislava]. Pamiatky a múzeá, No. 1, 1996, 44-47.

7. Ruiny a ich význam v dejinách architektúry a pamiatkovej starostlivosti [Ruins and their Significance in the History of Architecture and the Care of Historical Monuments]. Pamiatky a múzeá, No. 1, 1998, 12-13.

8. Srbskí Obrenovičovci a Ivanka pri Dunaji [The Obrenovics´ from Serbia and the Village of Ivanka near the Danube]. Historická Revue, No. 10, 1995, 32-33.

9. Slávni Thonetovci na Slovensku. Stoličková fabrika vo Veľkých Uherciach [The Well-known Thonet´s Family and their Activity in Slovakia. The Factory for the Manufacture of Chairs in Velke Uherce]. Historická Revue, No. 4, 1996, 34-35.

10. Podivuhodný inžinier /Lanfranconi/ [A Strange Engineer, Enea Grazioso Lanfranconi]. Historická Revue, No. 7, 1996, 30.

11. Opát z Rimavských Jánoviec. Pamiatkár František Florián Rómer [An Abbot from the Village Rimavske Janovce; The Historical Monuments' Protector, František Florián Romer]. Historická Revue, No. 2, 1997, 24-25.

12. Falzifikáty aj v architektúre. Spory okolo obnovy pamiatok [Are Forgeries in Architecture, too? The Disputes on the Theme of Historical Monuments‘ Restoration]. Historická revue, No. 3, 1997, 24.

13. Podivný gróf Pálfi a Bojnice. Vášnivý zberateľ [The Eccentric Earl Palffy from Bojnice: A Passionate Antiquarian]. Historická Revue, No. 5, 1997, 12-13.

14. Andrášiovský kaštieľ v Parchovanoch [The Castle of the Andrassy Family in the Village of Parchovany]. Historická Revue, No.8, 1997, back cover.

15. Píšuci prastrýko, maľujúci prasynovec. Alojz a Ladislav Medňanskovci [While Uncle was a Writer, his Old-Nephew was a Painter; Alojz and Ladislav Mednyansky]. Historická Revue, No. 2, 1998, 9-10.

16. Tajomstvá zachytenia pohybu [The Secrets of a Materialized Motion]. Historická Revue, No. 7, 1998, 20-21.

17. Melánia Zičiová-Ferrarisová. Tretia manželka Klemensa Metternicha [Melanie Zichy-Ferraris: The Third Wife of the Count Klemens Lothar Wenzel Metternich]. Historická Revue, No. 9, 1998, 14-15.

18. Anton Jaszuch. Historická Revue, No. 1, 1999, 26-27.

19. Milá poézia naivity; Zátišie I. Klimkoviča Váza so záhradnými kvetmi [The Graceful Poetry of Naivety: A Still Life with Flowers by I. Klimkowitz]. Národná Obroda, 7 February 1997, sec. Štýl, p. VII.

20. Aj reštaurovanie je umenie; tabuľová maľba s ústredným výjavom Poslednej večere [Restoration is an Art, too: A Painting on the Wood with the Theme of the Last Supper]. Národná Obroda, 24 July 1998, sec. Štýl, p. 20.

21. Terč, ktorý obdivuje rýchlosť; pamätný terč pocta rýchlosti od J. Arbtera [A Shooting Target with a Painted Motif : Honour to the Velocity, by J. Arbter]. Národná Obroda, 7 February 1997, sec. Štýl, p. VII.

22. Už postmoderna alebo koniec eklektizmu? [Post-Modernism, or just the End of the Eclectic Style? – Letters to the Editor]. Bratislavské Noviny, 9 September 1999, No. 17, vol. II, p. 4.

23. Cesty za umením v 19. storočí [Nineteenth-Century Journeys with the Aim of Art Reconnaisance]. Historická Revue, No. 4, 1999, 28-29.

24. Stavby veží a ich dostavby v teórii a praxi [Building of Towers and their Completion in Theory and Practice]. ARS Journal of the Institute for History of Art of Slovak Academy of Sciences 1-3, 2000, 94-133.

Book 1: Personal Prison Letters or Mooning Over the Garden, published by AuthorHouse, July 2005.

Book 2: Lucy’s Uncommon Companion, published by Choice Publishing, Ireland, August 2009.

Book 3: Miscalculated Feelings, published by Choice Publishing, Ireland, December 2013.

I appreciate your time spent here, and hope that in some way was useful!