Literatures in contacts

Students will obtain knowledge of the possibilities of transcending the traditional model of literary history and literary criticism. They will be able to transfer theoretical knowledge into interpretations of literary texts, or upgrade it with their own theoretical contributions.

Students interested in the course are expected to have previously acquired good knowledge in the field of literary studies (methodology, contemporary literary criticism, new approaches, literary classics). In order to take the final exam, the student has to actively participate during lectures and write a seminar assignment (30000 characters with spaces).

The issue of the traditional model of literary history, dominated by the national literatures and based on ethnic, linguistic and gender singularity, and the exclusion of the Other.
Literatures of small nations and minorities and their relation to domineering literatures.
Study of representations, constructs and (self)images of apparently homogenous national, ethnic and gender identity.
Inclusion of the new findings that uncover multiculturality in national literatures, mutual contacts and influences.
Case studies of transnational writings.
Echos of identity categories in literary texts: language, ethnicity, gender, race, class, sexuality etc.
The problem of borders and bounderies, literary geography.
The future of literary science in the context of transnationalism.
The course is linked to the following courses: Literary imagology, Literature and cultural nationalism in Europe, Translation as a means of transcultural communication, and Crossing the borders: literary journalism as a transnational and trans-generic discourse.

Students will be expected to write a scientific paper in which they would independently apply the knowledge obtained during the course.
Good knowledge of new findings, concepts and methods in literary studies, understanding the causes of their origin, and the ability to transfer the theoretical concepts into one's work on literary texts.

• Benedict Anderson: Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, rev.ed. London: Verso, 1919. Catalogue E-version
• Homi K. Bhaba: The Location of Culture. New York: Routledge, 1993. Catalogue E-version
• Rosi Braidotti: Nomadic Subjects, Embodiment and Sexual Difference in Contemporary Feminist Theory, Columbia University Press, New York, 1994.Catalogue
• Judith Butler: Bodies That Matter. New York: Routledge, 1993. E-version
• Margaret J. M. Ezell: Writing Women's Literary History. Baltimore: Johns Hoskins University Press, 1993. Catalogue E-version
• Sandra Harding: Is Science Multicultural? Postcolonialisms, Feminisms, and Epistemologies, Indiana University Press, 1998. E-version
• Linda Hutceheon in Mario J. Valdés: Rethinking Literary History. A Dialogue on Theory. Oxford, New York: University Press, 2002. E-version
• Karen R. Lawrence (ed.): Decolonizing Tradition: New Views of Twentieth-Century "British" Literary Canons. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993. E-version
• Ania Loomba: Colonialism/Postcolonialism, Routledge, London, 2002. Catalogue E-version
• Walter D. Mignolo. "Linguistic maps, literary geographies, and cultural landscapes: languages, languaging, and (trans)nationalism. " Modern Language Quarterly 57.2 (1996): 181–197. https://doi.org/10.1215/00267929-57-2-181
• David Perkins: Is Literary History Possible? Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press E-version
• Janet Todd: Feminist Literary History. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1998. E-version
• Robert Young: White Mythologies: Writing History and the West, Routledge, London and New York, 1990. E-version
• Gregory Woods: A History of Gay Literature. New Haven: Yale University. E-version

The project work is connected to the theme of the student's doctoral thesis (30%). Active participation (lectures, discussions), project-work (written assignment) 70%).

Katja Mihurko Poniž is Full Professor at the University of Nova Gorica. Her research fields include new approaches to literary studies (gender studies in particular), intercultural contacts, literary geography, and Slovene drama. In the field of research related to the Slovene literature, Professor Mihurko Poniž focuses on the writings of female writers and representations of femininity and masculinity in literary texts.
She was an active member of the COST project Women Writers in History and is currently leader of the Slovene part of the project Travelling TexTs, 1790-1914: The Transnational Reception of Women's Writing at the Fringes of Europe
(Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, Spain).

MIHURKO PONIŽ, Katja. Labirinti ljubezni v slovenski književnosti od romantike do II. svetovne vojne, (Zbirka Sodobna družba, 2008, 20). Ljubljana: Sophia, 2008. V, 254 pp. ISBN 978-961-6294-93-5. [COBISS.SI-ID 238032384]

MIHURKO PONIŽ, Katja. Nation and gender in the writings of Slovene women writers : 1848-1918. Aspasia, 2008, vol. 2, pp. 28–43. [COBISS.SI-ID 931323]

MIHURKO PONIŽ, Katja. Tujci in tuje v romanih : Prišleki in Francoski testament. Dve domov.. [Printed ed.], 2010, [No.] 31, pp. 153–167. [COBISS.SI-ID 31567405]

MIHURKO PONIŽ, Katja. Die Macht der männlichen literarischen Eliten und ihr Einfluss auf der Kreativität der slowenischen Autorinnen. In: GIERZINGER, Georg (ed.), HÖLZL, Sylvia (ed.), RONEN, Christine (ed.). Spielformen der Macht : Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven der Macht im Rahmen junger slawistischer Forschung, (Conference Series). 1. Auf. Innsbruck: Innsbruck University Press, 2011, pp. 377–393.

MIHURKO PONIŽ, Katja. El primero al Sol reina, al otro la oscuridad : la dialogicidad como principio fundamental de la creación en Scheherezade de Ivo Svetina. In: SVETINA, Ivo. Scheherezade : una ópera occidental-oriental, 1988, (Litterae Slovenicae, 2009, 5). Ljubljana: Slovene Writers' Association: = Društvo slovenskih pisateljev: = Asociación de Escritores Eslovenos, 2009, pp. 59–68. [COBISS.SI-ID 1493499]