EN
Similarly as many Slovak prose writers of the previous generation, in his collection of novellas 'Vykriky bez ozveny' (Cries without Echo) (1928), Milo Urban drew inspiration from rural environment. But Urban also introduced a modern universal topic in his novellas. It is certain distress, narrow-mindedness of village life. The main characters of Urban's stories, the village outsiders, experience it most intensively. They are lonely people who estranged their surroundings. The distress, melancholy that they feel indicates how reserved, shut off village can be. The author of the study interpretes two early novellas by Milo Urban - 'Jasek Kutliak spod Bucinky' (1922) and 'Rozprávka o Labudovi' (The Fairy-tale on Labuda). Due to the way of narration and ambiguity they present modern proses. The features of a fairy-tale, a ballad and a myth indicate a more complicated structure of narration. The novella 'Jasek Kutliak spod Bucinky' is about disintegration of a love relationship - after her wedding with the hunter Jasek, the young girl Hanka changes completely. The narration oscillates between the depiction of Hanka's wichedness and a story of/with modern topic of desillusion from lost love. In 'Rozprávka o Labudovi' (The Fairy-tale on Labuda) there are two possible ways of how to read the text. The first one is a story about a foolish peasant, the second is a more universal story about Labuda that becomes an allegory of human fate. The explanation of the novella becomes more complicated when its figurative language, metaphors as well as the topic of isolation are taken into account.