Slovenian Culture Research Articles

John Donne in Slovenian and the “Reflexive” Translation Theory of Antoine Berman

In his last book, Antoine Berman developed his theory of “translation criticism” by considering the poetry of John Donne in French translation. The present article applies that theory to Slovenian translations of Donne by Janez Menart and Marjan Strojan. It makes particular use of Berman’s concept of “marked” textual features to consider the survival of Donne’s “far-fetched” stylistic devices in Menart’s and Strojan’s translations. The article suggests that translation critics outside the Slovenian milieu should be aware of the preconceptions fostered by the hierarchy of “high” and “low” impact cultures. Silvia Kadiu, commenting on Berman, stresses the importance of “reflexivity” on the part of literary translators. When, as translation critics, we consider these two translators’ place within Slovenian culture and investigate the critical erudition they display towards Donne’s historical milieu, we find that Strojan and Menart pay exceptional respect to the principle of reflexivity.

Slovenske knjižnice v Argentini

Purpose: To present the history of Slovenian libraries in Argentina: outline the work and organization of the libraries (whether they have a catalogue, how lending is done, what the opening hours are, etc.), characteristics of the users, borrowing, visits of the libraries, opinions what they would change in their library, and to present the impor­tance of the libraries for the Slovenian community in the past and today. Methodology/approach: Literature review and fieldwork. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with respondents from 18 Slovenian libraries in Argentina, the data was content analysed. Results: The Slovenian community in Argentina is organized in associations, most of which have libraries, as do the umbrella organization of Slovenians in Argentina, Zedinjena Slovenija, and the Slovene language lectorates in Buenos Aires and Cordoba (eighteen libraries in total). Most libraries are in Buenos Aires, but they are also present in Mendoza, Bariloche, Rosario, Cordoba, and Paraná. Most libraries are community and school libraries. The librarians are mostly volunteers without librarian education. The libraries obtain their materials from Slovenia or through donations and inherit­ances. Most do not have a catalogue, do not keep records of borrowed books, their opening hours are usually during society events. They rarely or never organize events. The only service they offer is book lending, mostly to children, Slovenian school teach­ers and older members. Only the library in Bariloche is included in the COBISS system. The most vital libraries are those of the third-wave emigration associations, most of which were founded in the first decade after the Second World War. They are important for the preservation of Slovenian culture and language, but also have historical, archi­val and symbolic value for the community. Originality/practical implications: The first research on Slovenian libraries in Argentina. In addition to an overview of the history and situation of libraries, it also gives some guidelines for the future development of Slovenian emigrant libraries.

Celje ali Cilli: kultura med nemško okupacijo

This contribution focuses on the cultural life in Celje and its protagonists during World War II. In the attempt to Germanise Slovenia and its inhabitants, the German occupiers started implementing measures for the eradication of the local ethnicity and culture immediately after their arrival, and their primary target was the Slovenian culture. Consequently, from the institutional point of view, the latter was utterly destroyed and its personnel eliminated. Only the cultural monuments created by German artists – or those allegedly proving that the occupied territories, among them Lower Styria, actually constituted the German cultural area – were preserved. Therefore, the occupiers’ cultural policy as an integral and crucial part of the broader propaganda apparatus in the service of Germanisation was largely based on the German tradition or its restoration.

Positive liberty in the drama <i>The Serfs</i> by Ivan Cankar

Cankar’s drama The Serfs (Hlapci) was written during the cultural struggle waged at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and contains otherwise rarely stated political theses that have had a profound influence on the formation of Slovenian collective memory. The key world of Slovenian culture, as conveyed through the Cankar's drama, serves to express the dynamic processes of modernization and points to the unformed liberal and socialist discourse at the time. This is why the work functions in Slovenian culture as a call to action, even to active resistance.

Cankar’s name code (novel “Nina”)

The article deals with the novel “Nina” (1906) by the prominent Slovenian writer Ivan Cankar (1876–1918), which researchers and critics refer to as the most unusual and complex of his works. Trying to unravel one of the mysteries of the Slovenian classic and starting from the code of the name that became the title of the work, the article aims to show how the process of changing the axiological paradigm was going on in the writer’s creative laboratory, which was accompanied by a change in the onomastic code. This process is demonstrated by the history of the creation of the drama “Beautiful Vida” (1911), originally titled “Hrepenenye” – “Hrepenenje”), the work on which was going on simultaneously with the creation of the text of “Nina”. In the conceived drama, Nina acts as a character who carries all the nuances that make up the essence of this capacious term: from dreams of love and homesickness to a feeling of transcendent love that takes a person away, aspirations for everything beautiful in life. However, at the final stage of work on the play, I. Cankar deviates from the original idea and connects the symbolism of hrepenenje with the name of Beautiful Vida, a mythologem that is significant for Slovenian culture, while emphasizing in letters to friends and brother that “it will be something completely new and ours.” Thus, there is a change in the value artistic paradigm in the work of the writer, who, living in the multicultural environment of the European capital, and creating works in his native language, refuses the literary and cultural European code in favor of his national one.

Spory wokół języka słoweńskiego i ich wpływ na kształt literatury słoweńskiej w okresie romantyzmu

The article aims to explore the status of the Slovene language and literature, as well as Slovene culture during the Romantic period in the context of historical events which informed them as a result of the creation of the alphabet by Adam Bohorič in the 16th century. During the 19th century, in Slovenia an “orthographic war” was being waged. Its goal was to establish the one and correct version of the alphabet and the definitive spelling rules for the Slovene language. The debate about language erupted between the group under the leadership of Matia Čop (of which France Prešeren was a member) and the followers of Jernej Kopitar. The dispute involved a number of issues connected to Slovene literature and culture, and the status of Slovenia in Europe. Arguments in the debate were exchanged via publications, (e.g. Slovenska abecedna vojska), poetry (Satirical Sonnets and epigrams) and engaged a wide spectrum of topics such as the dialects of the Slovene language or literary criticism.

Dekonstrukcja mitów romantycznych w literaturze słoweńskiej po France Prešernie

The main aim of this article is to present the methods in which Slovenian myths of Romantic provenience, present in France Prešeren’s poetry, are deconstructed since the fifties of nineteenth century. Prešeren (1800−1849) is regarded as the national poet, who enabled the Slovenian community and competed with the canon of European literature. Parallelly to the process of his canonization occurred the reverse of it, The Anxiety of Influence, described by Harold Bloom. Poets Simon Jenko (1835−1869) and Oton Župančič (1878−1949) had been deconstructing the myths of Romantic love, mythical conception of poetry, poets and nationin the period of realism and modernism, as well as the poet Veno Taufer in the period of neo-avantgarde (1933−). The intertextual analysis of their poems shows several ways of contesting the influence of the main topics and aesthetic codes from Prešeren’s poetry, determined by the role of poetry in Slovenian culture, described in the late sixties of twentieth century as Prešeren structure.

Translation and diaspora

Abstract This article revisits Gideon Toury’s (1995, 2012) definition of translation as a fact of the target culture by highlighting the transfer of cultural images through literary translation in the periodicals of a US diaspora in the interwar period between the US Immigration Act of 1924 and the beginning of World War II in 1939. I argue that literary translations in diaspora periodicals fulfilled different roles and were used for strengthening not only intercultural but also intracultural links. The analysis of 4897 interwar issues of two periodical publications of the Slovene Americans shows that these periodicals continuously published literary translations: not only from different languages into Slovene, but also from Slovene into English. By means of the latter, Slovene immigrant diaspora attempted to construct their own representation of Slovene culture, and communicate this image to other immigrant communities, mainstream US culture, and the new generations who no longer spoke Slovene. The immigrant community thus became the promoter, creator, and receiver of these translations and simultaneously represented the source and target cultures, blurring clearly circumscribed borders of a distinct cultural unity.

The Role of Sergio Bonazza in Italian Slavic Studies

This contribution aims to give a scholarly and human profile of the Italian Slavist Sergio Bonazza (1938-2021), recently passed away. Bonazza was born in a Slovene-speaking village nearby Triest to a mixed family. He studied in Venice and Vienna, where he started his activity as a researcher in the field of Slavic studies history, especially in the Austro-German and Italian contexts of the 19th century. His academic career unfolded mostly at the University of Verona, but also in Naples, Udine and Vienna. In 1987 in Udine, he was assigned the first chair of Slovene studies out of Slovenia. Gifted with a strong personality, he touched on a wide variety of concerns in different fields of Slavic studies, overcoming academic and cultural stereotypes, and often opening up new perspectives in the fields of history of Slavistics, Slovene culture and literature, Austro-Slavism, Slavic-Italian cultural relationships, Glagolitic writing in Eastern Italy, and more. Bonazza is well known as a specialist in the scholarly biography of the prominent Slavist Jernej (Bartholomäeus) Kopitar, to whom he devoted his best works, including a monograph.

The Literary Politics of Mitteleuropa: Reconfiguring Spatial Memory in Austrian and Yugoslav Literature after 1945 by Yvonne Zivkovic

Reviewed by: The Literary Politics of Mitteleuropa: Reconfiguring Spatial Memory in Austrian and Yugoslav Literature after 1945 by Yvonne Zivkovic Sabine Egger The Literary Politics of Mitteleuropa: Reconfiguring Spatial Memory in Austrian and Yugoslav Literature after 1945. By Yvonne Zivkovic. Rochester, NY: Camden House. 2021. 319 pp. £95. ISBN 978–1-64014–088–2. Yvonne Zivkovic's study discusses how post-war writers in Austria and Yugoslavia have re-imagined the concept of Mitteleuropa as a cultural space between nostalgia and totalitarianism from 1945 to the present. In four chapters the book compares Central European memory spaces in the writing of Ingeborg Bachmann and Peter Handke between 1945 and the 1960s, Danilo Kiš and Aleksandar Tišma from 1960 to 1989, and Christoph Ransmayr and Dubravka Ugrešić after 1990, placing them within the framework of twentieth-century discourses on Mitteleuropa and twenty-first-century images of Europe and its potential dissolution. Chapter 1 links ideas of a transnational Mitteleuropa, put forward by politicians like Friedrich Naumann or Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, and Jewish Austrian writers Stefan Zweig, Joseph Roth or Ödön von Horváth, to Milan Kundera's and György Konrád's critical debate [End Page 210] of the 1980s. What emerges is a conflicted idea of Mitteleuropa, situated between hope and melancholia, utopian and dystopian visions of a multi-ethnic and pluralist territory left behind by the Habsburg Empire, and a 'mental space', following Lefebvre, shaped by the cultural heritage of the European enlightenment. Zivkovic argues that Claudio Magris's The Habsburg Myth does not capture the critical and dystopian dimension of these writings. The latter is already highlighted in Ruth Klüger's painful memory of 'Mitteleuropäer in Birkenau', which Zivkovic references in her opening (p. 1). The importance of Jewish authors in the literary politics of Mitteleuropa and the significance of the destruction of Jewish culture is brought to the fore throughout the book. Chapter 3 focuses on Kiš and Tišma, two Jewish Yugoslav writers from the Serbian border province of Vojvodina, who approach this difficult past through their distinct aesthetics. A further focus lies on the extent to which the ideas of Mitteleuropa discussed are political, even when they are represented as explicitly apolitical or 'antipolitical'. By using the latter as a term Konrád chose to distance his writing from the Soviet bloc in 1982, Ugrešić places herself within this tradition of Central European literature (p. 263). Zivkovic's comparative approach reveals surprising parallels in the ways Austrian and former Yugoslavian writers approach Mitteleuropa as a trope and mental space. Both Bachmann and Kiš reflect on the late turn towards Holocaust memory in their respective countries and historical settings. Drawing on a spectrum of literary traditions, post-communist memories and their recent experience of the fragmentation of a multi-ethnic European state in the Yugoslav wars, texts by Kiš or Ugrešić revisit and deconstruct patterns of the Habsburg myth. At the same time, Zivkovic's reading of Bachmann and Handke focuses on their Carinthian background and links to Slovenian culture, thus reversing traditional centre–periphery patterns in Austrian literature. Including Yugoslav literature in the Mitteleuropa debate revived in the 1980s by Kundera and Konrád opens up new perspectives on Europe as a cultural and political construct, as well as on the role of literature in this process. This not only applies to the widening of the Mitteleuropa discourse from a Balkan perspective. As Zivkovic points out in her conclusion, '[t]hrough an increased literary presence of Mitteleuropa in Ukrainian and Polish but also Croatian and Serbian literature over the last decade or so, the Central European margin is expanding further east and south' (p. 280). The impact of EU funding on promoting a specific vision of European collectivity is mentioned, as well as the role of exchanges with other Central European writers by means of networks, exile communities and literary festivals. It might also have been useful to discuss the role of literary awards in this context, as these play a major part in positioning authors in specific literary fields. The book also touches on what it means to write in a second language...

The World of Odour in the Slovenian Performing Arts

The article provides an overview of performances on Slovenian stages that have used odour to stimulate the audience’s senses and arouse transformational effects. Representing the first research of this kind into Slovenian culture, the author demonstrates that odour was used as a means of sensory perception, especially in experimental theatre practices since the 1970s. One of the first such works was Cimetova vrata ladje norcev in druge spremembe (The Cinnamon Door of the Ship of Fools and Other Changes), a performance art piece directed by Tomaž Kralj at Glej Theatre in 1975. In the 1990s, the interest in olfactory perceptions grew among theatre-makers who successfully used odour to implement the aesthetics of the real in post-dramatic theatre and achieve the immersion of the spectator. This role of odour in theatre also continues in the 21st century. Barbara Pia Jenič began deliberately and continuously developing the poetics of scent at the Sensorium Theatre, which she founded in 2001 with Gabriel Hernandez. In her creation of sensorial events, Jenič relies on the methodologies of Enrique Vargas, with which she became acquainted as an actress and scent designer in his group Teatro de los Sentidos and creatively developed them at the Sensorium Theatre. As a scent designer, Jenič has collaborated with other Slovenian theatres, among others, on the 2015 operatorium, The Tenth Daughter (Deseta hči) by Svetlana Makarovič (based on the libretto by Milko Lazar, directed by Rocco) at the Slovenian National Theatre – Opera and Ballet Ljubljana.

REVIEW CULTURAL CHARACTERISTICS OF SLOVENIAN SOCIETY AND ITS ATTITUDE TOWARDS SECURITY AND THE MILITARY

REVIEW CULTURAL CHARACTERISTICS OF SLOVENIAN SOCIETY AND ITS ATTITUDE TOWARDS SECURITY AND THE MILITARY

Fire in the Roof, Truth in the Air: The Centennial of the Conflagration at the Slovenian Cultural Centre in Trieste

Fire in the Roof, Truth in the Air: The Centennial of the Conflagration at the Slovenian Cultural Centre in Trieste

Geography and Current State of Apitourism in Ukraine and Slovenia

The article provides a comparative analysis of the geography and the current state of apitourism in Ukraine and Slovenia. The essence of apitourism and its importance for achieving the goals of sustainable development are characterized. Apitourism is a form of tourism related to beekeeping as a traditional profession and beekeeping products in ecological, nutritional and medical aspects. At its core, apitourism is permanent, so it does not deplete resources, but contributes to their enrichment. The main prerequisites for the development, markets and geography of apitourism in Ukraine and Slovenia are analyzed. Ukraine is one of the main producers of honey in the world. The most promising regions of Ukraine for the development of apitourism are the Carpathian and Transcarpathian regions since beekeeping there is a widespread industry, a priority and quite profitable. Slovenia does not have a significant number of hives and beekeepers or a significant production of honey, but bees play a huge role in Slovenian culture. Slovenia is the only member state of the European Union to protect its native Karniolska bee and one of the first in Europe to ban the use of pesticides harmful to bees. Slovenian honey has the status of a protected geographical indication. Famous apitouristic centers in Slovenia are Ljubljana, Bled, Radovlica, Laško, Brda, Zhirovnice, Maribor, Aquarius, Bohinj and many others, that is, villages, cities, entire regions. The main problems of development of apitourism in Ukraine are revealed. The experience of Slovenia in the development of apitourism is studied and the priority directions of the development of apitourism in Ukraine are determined. Ukraine should develop the existing potential for apitourism, in particular, provide a favorable regulatory framework, create regional programs for the development of apitourism and beekeeping, protect bees from pesticides, grant the status of a geographical indication to Ukrainian honey, in particular, Transcarpathian. Public organizations should study international (in particular, Slovenian) and domestic experience in the field of apitourism, prepare teaching materials, organize training of sandstones in the provision of apitourism services and their promotion. The apitouristic route “The Honey Route of Two Countries: Ukraine and Slovenia” is developed. To increase interest in apitourism among promising tourists, it is necessary to develop new apitourism programs and routes, in particular, not only domestic, but also international (for example, Ukraine-Slovenian).

Ernest Hemingway in Slovenia since 1990: Scandal, the Soča and Six-Toed Cats

The position of Ernest Hemingway in Slovenian culture in the pre-1990 period was systematically examined by Maver (1990). Developments since then, however, have not yet been researched in a synthetic manner. The article analyzes three aspects of Hemingway’s presence in Slovenia: literary-critical reception of his works in Slovenia after 1990; his position in Slovenian popular culture; and the statistical data about the number of book loans for his books in Slovenian libraries. The analyses confirm that Hemingway’s position in Slovenia has not changed dramatically and that he remains recognized as one of the foremost 20thcentury American writers.

Vprašanja identitet, migracij in transkulturnosti: Primer pesnice Cvetke Lipuš

Pesnica Cvetka Lipuš je mednarodno uveljavljena in večkrat nagrajena pesnica, rojena na avstrijskem Koroškem. Po študiju v Avstriji je odšla v Združene države Amerike, nato pa se je po več kot desetletju bivanja čez lužo vrnila in se ustalila v Salzburgu. Doslej je izdala sedem pesniških zbirk in je ena izmed najpomembnejših ambasadork slovenske kulture v tujini. Svoje pesniške misli preliva na papir izključno v slovenščini, svojem prvem jeziku, medtem ko sta nemščina in angleščina jezika njene izobrazbe in poklicnega življenja. V prispevku se avtorji sprašujejo, kako se migracije in trije kulturni krogi, ki jo spremljajo, odražajo v njenem življenju in delu.

Equestrian tourism and horse breeding in Hungary and Slovenia – environmental sustainability and conservation of cultural heritage: a strategic approach

Historically, horse-breeding and riding has been an integral part of Hungarian and Slovenian culture for over a thousand years. In a broader sense, the equestrian sector includes all related activities, without which the efficient operation of the sector is unthinkable. Examples include infrastructure development, fodder production, veterinary services, the institutional system operating in the sector (public and non-governmental organizations, etc.). In the narrower sense, the equestrian industry is the sum of all areas where the horse is the main driver of its operation. This includes all areas of horse-related activities, such as all-inclusive education, use of horses in organic agriculture, horse breeding, equestrian tourism, horse racing, traditional historic horse-events, equestrian therapy, recreational riding and horseback riding are key elements. A feasibility study was carried out in the Hungarian – Slovenian border region to explore the possibilities for joint cross-boundary development of horse-based tourism. Hungary's and Slovenia’s contemporary natural qualities provide excellent opportunities for equestrian tourism. The starting point for formulating cross-boundary equestrian programme is that the mutually reinforcing, complex and holistic development of each sub-area can only produce results. We have identified the strategic goals of equestrian tourist destination development: a) people-centred and long-term profitable development; b) improvement of tourism reception conditions; c) attraction development, including target-group oriented special programmes; d) human resource development and equestrian education; e) PR and marketing; f) regulatory interventions / measures, which can be effective if they work closely with businesses, NGOs and the public sector (municipalities, government agencies), including conservation of horse-related material and intangible cultural heritage.

What we talk about when we talk about generation

In the first part, the article explores the probably prevailing use of the term ‘generation’ in Slovenian culture and journalism in the 2010s. It delineates the network of institutions and discourses in the play of symbolic and economic power, as well as the conclusion or the transformation of the discussed social formation. The second part wishes to attribute new mental and political connotations by perceiving it as an age group, which has, like never before, been shaped in the global symbolic world and is facing global problems.

Metropolis? no thanks! Ljubljana in Slovenian cinema during the socialist modernisation period (1945–1969)

The city of Ljubljana is one of the most recurring Slovenian film locations. It would be interesting to find out, therefore, precisely how it is presented in Slovenian films. This article is based on a semiological analysis of all Slovenian feature-length movies shot during the quick modernisation period of the country of Yugoslavia (and its Socialist Republic of Slovenia), beginning after the Second World War and ending in the late 60s, which are mostly set in Ljubljana. The results suggest that Slovenian filmmakers at that time were not comfortable with the processes of modernisation and urbanisation of the city. This point could be discerned from two opposing yet interrelated representations of the city in the analysed sample. In the films in which the distinct signs of modernisation are largely absent, Ljubljana is presented as a pleasant or even beautiful city, while in the films in which the signs of modernisation are present, Ljubljana is shown as a neurotic and alienated place. Such representations could be explained by relatively low status of urbanity in the Slovenian culture.

Art historical time in the works of Ivan Сankar

In the article on the example of the work of the biggest Slovenian writer Ivan Cankar (1876-1918) the subject of art historical time is studied. It raises the question of the place and role of historical time in the literary texts whose authors use it to organize plot, characters and art space. I. Cankar, as a rule, does not give expanded descriptions of one or another significant event. The historic time is presented in his works in the form of digressions, in the memories of the characters. Sometimes it refers to very recent history, presciently anticipating the importance of a phenomenon for the destinies of individuals and of entire peoples. Such events form thematic nodes, motifs, storylines of his works. Three themes dominate in the prose of I. Cankar: the peasant uprising, the World War I, and the theme of exile. Many times would he address the plots and topics of folk poetry. However his view on it and on the important for the Slovene culture folklore and mythical characters sometimes differs a lot from the views of many of his contemporaries. This was specifically reflected in his work on the drama on peasant uprisings. He dedicates special attention to those periods of the national history that underwent sacralization in the folk consciousness (“The Golden Age”). His favorite creative method is the staging of a historical episode through folklore and folk mythology, among other, to its characters. For some historical processes (the exile) he introduces the topic of the rupture of a man from their homeland.