From Communicative Minimum to Intertextuality and Symbolism: Peter Svetina’s Children’s Literature

Abstract

From Communicative Minimum to Intertextuality and Symbolism: Peter Svetina’s Children’s Literature Igor Saksida (bio) Peter Svetina’s children’s literature begins with easily understandable, sometimes explicit patterns of communication: his first two animal fairy tales, The Walrus Who Didn’t Want to Cut His Nails (O mrožku, ki si ni hotel striči nohtov; 1999) and The Little Walrus Gets Glasses (Mrožek dobi očala; 2003), deal with the issue of difference and acceptance, establishing a sort of inter-textual dialogue, with older texts focusing on similar problem-oriented topics. After his first forays into children’s literature, Svetina’s poetry and stories developed along two distinct paths: toward language play on the one hand, and toward realistic topics on the other. However, both developments reflect the author’s distinctive poetics of combining nonsense and realism, including problem-focused fiction. Click for larger view View full resolution Click for larger view View full resolution Svetina’s collections of poetry are extremely varied and represent one of the high points of contemporary Slovenian poetry. Svetina’s first book of verse, By-World (Mimosvet; 2001), could be labeled as a collection of problem poetry, although growing up is not shown against a background of symbolic concepts, typical of children’s and young adult poetry at the time; instead, the poems show the reality as childlike and playful. Svetina’s return to the flashes from the uncomplicated (but not naive or idealized) children’s world is one of the foremost characteristics of his poetics of the “communicative minimum,” which transcends the tradition of the complex linguistic innovation of late modernist poetry. On the other hand, language play is the basis of the brilliant Poems from the Washing Machine (Pesmi iz pralnega stroja; 2006), wherein Svetina combines nonsense with taboo words and a lyrical attitude toward nature; many of the texts in the book are also visual poems, meaning that the collection provides the youngest readers with a glimpse of the possibilities of poetic expression without ever being pushy about it. Even in Svetina’s mixed-genre collection of poems and short stories, The Lumber Room (Ropotarna; 2012), nonsense can be [End Page 47] sensed as the common creative basis. As the award justification by the jury for the 2013 Večernica Award explained, “The Lumber Room is an organised chaos of tiny treasures, patiently waiting for the reader to pick them up and blow the dust off them. The writer’s skilful navigation between poetry and prose, between the conscious and the subconscious, is merely playful fluctuation, full of rhetorical figures that with a particular dynamics take the reader from the real to the irrational, from the mighty to the nonsensical…. A ramble through Svetina’s Lumber Room leads to a more creative read, full of elusive twists and turns” (Haramija 85). Svetina’s Homework (Domače naloge; 2014), another collection of poetry, moves away from the poetics of language play; although one can still detect wordplay typical of nonsense poetry (e.g., play with letters, unusual neologisms), the poems are predominantly based on the real world of the modern child, who is not just playful and appreciative of the wonders of nature, but also sometimes lonely: For Grandma to Come for us to school,for kitty to wait for uson our doorstep. For someone to be homewhen we come from school,for us not to be alone, I ask you, our Father,I ask you, mom. (“Homework on Prayer”) and aware of impermanence: On a white fielda crow pecksforgotten autumn’sbreadcrumbs. From afar, it lookslike a breadcrumbitself. Will it be peckedas well? (“Homework on Crows”) Click for larger view View full resolution A similar topic is at the center of Prayers from the Steps (Molitvice s stopnic; 2016), a book based on a rarely touched-upon theme of children’s poetry, a child’s reflections on God. The collection also deals with gratitude but also fear, aging, and intergenerational dialogue. As such, the collection could easily slip into moralization or idealization; however, Svetina avoids both pitfalls. His reflections are not pre-abstract and allow young readers a chance to...