Marginal Characters in Literature

Students become acquainted with contemporary theoretical perspectives on minor characters in literary narratives. They understand the processes of creating literary characters in various literary genres and forms. They are capable of critically assessing minor, disabled, and marginalized literary characters in specific literary works, drawing on contemporary literary studies. With the foundations of emotional literary theory and disability studies in literature, they are able to recognize and analyze the neglected position of minor characters within the overall fictional narrative.

There are no enrolment or degree requirements for the course.

The study of literature has traditionally focused on central characters of literary narratives, while the present subject sheds light on minor characters. This phenomenon is first examined from a narratological perspective, specifically through the lens of affective narratology, illuminating narrative structures that assign individual characters to peripheral roles. We analyze various narratological categories related to the establishment of characters in stories, including: narrator, implicit author, focalization, framing, description, storytelling, etc. We review research on established character types in specific genres, such as characters in older drama, troubadours in poetry, detectives in prose, stepmothers in fairy tales. Using examples from Slovenian and world literature, we focus on questions of who speaks in literary texts and when, and how story focalization is shaped. Theoretically, we draw on the emotional turn in literary studies. The presentation of the methodological direction of disability studies in literature is both theoretical and grounded in critical readings of well-known Slovenian and foreign literary works. This is followed by an analysis of various marginalized groups based on gender, age, ethnic background, etc., in Slovenian and foreign literary works. We critically analyze the concept of canon through case studies of literary works that have not been canonized.

Knowledge and understanding:

Students become acquainted with key contemporary literary concepts through which the role of minor, disabled, and marginalized literary characters can be understood. They familiarize themselves with the foundations of emotional literary theory, affective narratology, disability studies in literature, and other theories in the field of literary studies that illuminate the roles of minor characters in narratives.

Skills:

Students are capable of identifying and analyzing the expressive possibilities of minor characters in literary narratives. They acquire the skill of recognizing story focalization in terms of the hierarchy of central and minor characters. Students are able to independently analyze the role of marginalized groups in Slovenian and foreign literary works. They are capable of critically analyzing the concept of canon using examples.

Basic:

• DAVIS, Lennard J.: The Disability Studies Reader. New York: Routledge. 2017. Catalogue
• WOLOCH, Alex: The One vs. the Many: Minor Characters and the Space of the Protagonist in the Novel. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 2003. Catalogue
• ROSEN, Jeremy: Minor Characters Have Their Day: Genre and the Contemporary Literary Marketplace. New York: Columbia University Press. 2016. Catalogue
• Galef, David: The Supporting Cast: A Study of Flat and Minor Characters. Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press. 1993. Catalogue

Additional:

• HOGAN, Patrick Colm: Affective Narratology: The Emotional Structure of Stories. Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press. 2011.
• ZAJC, Ivana. Becoming a woman writer: the self-representations in the letters of woman writers of the Slovene moderna. Literaturna misʺl. 2023, vol. 66, no. 2, str. 139–161.
• HÜHN, Peter idr.: The living handbook of narratology. 2009. Dostopno na: E-version
• GUTER, Bob in KILLACKY, John R.: Queer Crips: Disabled Gay Men and Their Stories. New York: Harrington Park Press, 2004.

• exam 50 %

• seminar paper 50 %

Assistant professor Dr. Ivana Zajc deals with digital humanities, especially with distant reading of literary texts, and with literary theoretical questions. She researches Slovene literary history from the point of view of the work of women writers and the history of emotions. She is the author of the scientific monograpf What is literary competence and how we test it with the matura essay. Her scientific articles have been published in many Slovene and foreign journals.

Selection of articles:

• ZAJC, Ivana. Becoming a woman writer: the self-representations in the letters of woman writers of the Slovene moderna. Literaturna misʺl. 2023, vol. 66, no. 2, str. 139–161.
• ZAJC, Ivana. Elementi monodrame in avtobiografskosti v besedilih Simone Semenič: vidik računalniške stilometrije. Amfiteater: revija za teorijo scenskih umetnosti. 2019, letn. 7, št. 2, str. 80–98.
• MANDIĆ, Lucija, ZAJC, Ivana. Stilometrična analiza avtorskega sloga Jurčič-Kersnikovega romana Rokovnjači. V: POTEKO, Ina (ur.). Slovansko jezikovno in literarno povezovanje ter zgodovinski kontekst: Mednarodni študentski simpozij Slovan Slovanu Slovan. Ljubljana: Študentska organizacija Filozofske fakultete, 2020, str. 7–13.
• ZAJC, Ivana. Sodobne slovenske dramatičarke: tematsko-formalne novosti in primera sodobnih dramskih besedil za osnovno in srednjo šolo. V: ŽBOGAR, Alenka (ur.). Ustvarjalke v slovenskem jeziku, literaturi in kulturi: 57. seminar slovenskega jezika, literature in kulture: 5.-16. 7. 2021. 1. natis. Ljubljana: Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete, 2021. Str. 106–109. Zbirka Seminar slovenskega jezika, literature in kulture.
• ZAJC, Ivana. Literarna zmožnost kultiviranega bralca in Evropski literarni okvir. Jezik in slovstvo. 2019, letn. 64, št. 3/4, str. 57–67, 156.
• ZAJC, Ivana. Implicitni avtor : raba v slovenski literarni vedi, nove opredelitve in problematična mesta. Slavistična revija : časopis za jezikoslovje in literarne vede. 2017, letn. 65, št. 1, str. 127–139.