South Slavic Literatures

The main aim of the course is to develop and deepen intercultural literary competence in the context of South Slavic literary studies and the comparative history of South Slavic literatures. Students will be able to indicate the main literary works of Croatian, Bosnian-Herzegovinian, Serbian, Montenegrin, Macedonian, and Bulgarian literatures, analyze them in an intercultural context, and compare them with corresponding phenomena in world literature.

The aim is also to empower students to understand and describe the specific problems faced by regional South Slavic literary comparative studies in the relation between national philology as the narrowest and world literature as the broadest framework. Students will be capable of thinking beyond methodological nationalism and will be able to examine literary and cultural phenomena in a comparative and transcultural or transnational context.

There are no conditions for enrollment.

The course is initially concerned with the problem of naming literary phenomena and systems, which are the main topic of this elective course. Using a problem-based approach, students will explore various terms such as South Slavic/Yugoslav literature, post-Yugoslav literature, national literature, South Slavic and Slavic literatures in a European and global context. By delving into issues of literary history, students will aim to answer questions of how the reception of these concepts occurs in different cultural contexts, with a particular emphasis on the connection to the imaginary of neighboring cultures that influence the representation of these emblematic literary works.

Students will acquire an understanding of the histories of Serbian, Macedonian, Montenegrin, Bulgarian, Bosnian-Herzegovinian, and Croatian literature. In addition to theoretical knowledge, they will read selected excerpts and shorter literary works to better understand key elements and canonical phenomena in these literary traditions.

Students will compare phenomena in different literary genres and in South Slavic literatures from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present day through the following thematic clusters:

• the reception of ancient motifs in South Slavic literatures on the example of different literary adaptations of the myth of Antigone;
• a comparative analysis of socially critical drama in the first half of the twentieth century through the works of Ivan Cankar and Miroslav Krleža;
• an analysis of the clash between national literatures and the challenges faced by authors with dual belonging, which will be explored through examples such as Zofka Kveder, Sonja Sever, Vladan Desnica, and Ivo Andrić;
• the problematics of the position of women authors in South Slavic literatures, exemplified by the works of Croatian women authors from the 1980s onwards: Slavenka Drakulić and Dubravka Ugrešić in a comparative context;
• the significance of epistolary writing and letter discourse will be explored through an analysis of the work of Julka Hlapec Đorđević, while the notion of literary-activist correspondence will be explored through the four-author book Vjetar ide na jug i obrće se na sjever/Veter gre proti poldnevu in se obrača proti polnoči;
• the contextualization of the South Slavic avant-garde movements (Zenitism, Dadaism, Constructivism, Surrealism) within the European avant-gardes, transnational cooperation, and the specificities of literary and artistic concepts based on the social and cultural context of the area;
• magical realism tendencies in South Slavic literatures drawing on the works of Živko Čingo and Jordan Radičkov;
• the connection between poetic discourse and the concept of belonging and home, illustrated by the poetry of Ana Ristović;
• an overview of post-Yugoslavian queer literature, where students will focus on its characteristics and particularities.

Knowledge and understanding:

• fundamental knowledge of the literary history of South Slavic literatures from their inceptions to the contemporary age.
• an overall understanding of the complex processes in the literary culture of the South Slavic space.
• the ability to think in a problem-oriented fashion about issues of literary periodization and the relationship between national literature and world literature.

Skills:

• critical research approach to a transnational literary problem.
• presenting impactful research argumentation from the perspective of literary history.
• demonstrating the research findings to the class and debating their research contribution in a well-argued manner.

Basic:

• Izbrana poglavja iz literarnozgodovinskih priročnikov / Selected chapters from handbooks of literary history
• NOVAK, S. P. Povijest hrvatske književnosti. Od Bašćanske ploće do danas. Zagreb, 2003.
• DERETIĆ, J. Istorije srpske književnosti. Beograd 1983. E-version
• PREGELJ, I. Slovstvena zgodovina Slovencev, Hrvatov in Srbov v vprašanjih in odgovorih. Jugoslovanska knjigarna, 1938. Catalogue E-version
• RAVBAR, M. Pregled hrvatske, srbske in makedonske književnosti. Maribor: Obzorja, 1958. Catalogue
• JURANČIČ, J., ŠTAMPAR, E. in RAVBAR, M. Pregled srbske, hrvatske in makedonske književnosti. Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, 1964.
• SUŠNIK, F. Jugoslovanska književnost. Maribor: Prosvetna zveza, 1930.

Additional:

• JENSTERLE-DOLEŽAL, A. Mit o Antigoni v zahodno- in južnoslovanskih dramatikah sredi 20. stoletja. Ljubljana: Slovenska matica, 2004.
• MIJATOVIĆ, A., WILLEMS, B. (eds) Reconsidering (Post-)Yugoslav Time, Leiden: Brill, 2021.
• Jugoslovenska književnost: prošlost, sadašnjost i budućnost jednog spornog pojma = Yugoslav Literature: the Past, Present and Future of a Contested Notion. Beograd: Čigoja štampa, 2019. Catalogue
• MIHURKO PONIŽ, K. Vezi Zofke Kveder s srbskim kulturnim prostorom. Slovenika, [na spletu] (5), 2019, str. 23–48. E-version
• BERONJA, V, VERVAET, S. Post-Yugoslav Constellations: Archive, Memory, and Trauma in Contemporary Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian Literature and Culture. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter; 2016.
• HARPER, M. P. KAMBOUROV, D. (eds.) Bulgarian Literature as World Literature. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2020.
• SUBIOTTO, N. Razvoj makedonskega romana. V: TOKARZ, Emil (ur.). Świat Słowian. Bielsko-Biała: Wydawnictwo ATH, 2006, str. 260–266.
• HARPER, M. P. KAMBOUROV, D. (eds.) Bulgarian Literature as World Literature. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2020.
• DUKIĆ, D. Nacionalna vs. komparativna povijest književnosti, Umjetnost riječi, 1-2, 2003, str. 3–26. E-version
• JAKOBSON, R. Comparative Slavic Studies. The Review of Politics, 16(1), 1954, str. 67–90.
• POSPÍŠIL, I. The Slavonic Literary Studies at the Crossroads: Redefining, or Preserving?. Poznańskie Studia Slawistyczne, (23), 2023, 193–211. E-version
• STARIKOVA, N. N. On the phenomenon of biliterariness (based on the experience of studies of South Slavic literatures). Primerjalna književnost, letnik 42, številka 2, (2019), str. 121–130. E-version
• BRAJOVIĆ, T. Južnoslovenska komparatistika: luksuz ili naučna potreba, Sarajevske sveske, št. 32-33, 2011, str. 93–104. E-version
• Each year's readings and relevant articles will be determined annually and will be based on seminar topics and student interests.

Requirements for the exam: presence and active participation in lectures and completing a seminar paper with a presentation.

˗ seminar paper and presentation 50 %
˗ oral exam 50 %

Alenka Jensterle Doležal teaches Slovene and Slavic literatures and literary at the Faculty of Arts at Charles University. She graduated from Slovene studies, comparative literature, and philosophy, and then obtained a PhD with a dissertation on Antigone in Slavic playwriting. She is also the author of six monographs (one in Czech and one in English): V krogu mitov: o ženski in smrti v slovenski književnosti (In the Circle of Myths: On the Woman and Death in Slovene Literature, 2008), Poglavja iz slovenske moderne (Chapters from the Slovene Moderna, 2014), Ključi od labirinta: o slovenski poeziji (The Keys to the Labyrinth: On Slovene poetry 2017), Mezikulturní dialog. Slovinské stopy v českém prostředí. (Dialog Between Cultures. Slovene Traces in the Czech Culture) and monograph Slovene Women Writers at the Beginning of the 20th Century (2023). She regularly publishes academic articles in Slovene, Czech and English.
She has also published several poetry and prose works, the latest ones being Pesmi v snegu (Poems in the Snow, 2012), the novel Pomen hiše (The Meaning of a House, 2015), O ljubezni, vojni, izgubi in pozabi (On Love, War, Loss. and Forgetting, 2023)

Selected bibliography:

1.JENSTERLE DOLEŽAL, Alenka, Mit o Antigoni v zahodno- in južnoslovanskih dramatikah sredi 20. stoletja. Ljubljana: Slovenska Matica, 2004. ISBN 961-213-099-X. 263 str.
2.JENSTERLE DOLEŽAL, Alenka. Nation (Transnationality), Gender and Politics in the Feminist Work of Julka Chlapec-Đorđević, Knjiženstvo no. 6. Beograd: Filološki fakultet, 1920, s. 1 –26.
http://www.knjizenstvo.rs/en/journals/2020/womens-writing-and-culture/nation-transnationality-gender-and-politics-in-the-feminist-work-of-julka-chlapec-djordjevic
3.JENSTERLE DOLEŽAL, Alenka. „The Shift to Modernity. Czech motives in the literary works of Slovene-Croat author Zofka Kveder.“ Carmen Dutu (ed.). Eurofringes. Translating Texts, translating Cultures. Bucureşti : Pro Universitaria, 2021, s. 63–84. ISBN 978-606-26-1414-0.
4. JENSTERLE DOLEŽAL Alenka. Mezikulturní dialog. Slovinské stopy v českém prostředí. Práce Filozofické fakulty Univerzity Karlovy. Ediční rada Varia. Praha: Nakladatelství Filozofické fakulty UK, 2022.ISBN 978-807671-083-2. 175 s.
5. JENSTERLE DOLEŽAL, Alenka, Mit o Antigoni: metafora ali alegorija. Južnoslovanska dramatika po drugi svetovni vojni. In: Halina Mieckowska i Julian Kornhauser (eds.), Studia slawistyczne. Kraków: Universitatis 1998, s. 153–161. ISBN 83-7052-896-1.
6. JENSTERLE-DOLEŽAL, Alenka, In the Realm of Politics, Nonsense, and the Absurd: The Myth of Antigone in West and South Slavic Drama in the Mid-Twentieth Century.“ In: Movrin, David – Olechowska, Elžbieta (eds.), Classics and Communism in Theatre : Greaco- Roman Antiquity on the Communist Stage. Warsaw: Faculty of Artes Liberales 2019, University of Warsaw, s. 227–243. ISBN 978-83-286-0062-1.