Slovenian Literature and Censorship

OBJECTIVES
- The course will introduce students to theoretical concepts related to censorship in the narrow sense (i.e. censorship as implemented by the state/authority with its apparatus of repression, e.g. pre-censorship and post-censorship), but also censorship in the broader sense (in terms of the "new theory of censorship");
- Students will become familiar with and develop a deeper understanding of the fundamental historical periods of conflict between Slovenian literature and the various censorship practices – from the indexing of banned books and the destruction of Protestant works to classical state pre-censorship from the Theresian era to the middle of the 19th century, the period of repressive post-censorship in the second half of the 19th century and the complex and shifting censorship practices of the 20th century.

COMPETENCIES:
- Students will be able to distinguish between different modalities of censorship, recognize different types of censorship practices, and acquire a basic historical knowledge of the changing relationship between literature and censorship;
- Students will strengthen their ability to read and interpret literary texts critically, paying particular attenti-on to potentially problematic passages in the texts under consideration;
- Through constructive debate, students will strengthen their critical thinking skills and develop as critical intellectuals, as well as improve their ability to argue and engage in critical discourse.

There are no enrolment or degree requirements for the course Slovenian Literature and Censorship.

The course introduces students to the basic theoretical concepts and analytical tools necessary for the study of censorship. It introduces the different ways of typologizing censorship practices, the main thematic areas of censorship, and a descriptive history of censorship practices from antiquity to the present.
The central part of the syllabus includes a historical analysis using the example of Slovenian literature, which provides an overview of Slovenian writers' encounters with various forms of censorship. The central chapters are as follows:
- The emergence of censorship in the early modern period, with the invention of printing and the intensifying religious conflict between Catholicism and Protestantism (the Roman Index librorum prohibitorum, the Slovenian Protestants, especially Trubar);
- Gradual transition of censorship from the ecclesiastical to the state domain (in the Theresian era);
- The classical pre-censorship regime from Joseph II to the March Revolution (1848): the era of Metternich and Sedlnitzky (Linhart, Prešeren, Drabosnjak, Krempl, Žemlja);
- Post-censorship and the rise of Slovenian newspapers after 1848 (Bleiweis, Vilhar, Levstik, Einspieler, Alešovec);
- Slovenian literature and imperial censorship in the last decades of the monarchy (Jurčič, Trdina, Tavčar, Kveder, Cankar, Podlimbarski);
- Censorship in royal Yugoslavia;
- The Second World War and literary censorship in the socialist era (from Balantič to Jančar);
- Independent Slovenia and the changes in censorship practice (Pikalo, Smolnikar).

A student
- learns and understands the basic theoretical concepts related to censorship;
- acquires a basic historical orientation about the prevailing censorship practices in the respective epochs;
- knows the basics of the encounters of the most important Slovenian literary authors with censorship (from Trubar, Linhart, Prešeren, Levstik and Cankar to Breda Smolnikar);
- develops the ability to independently examine and critically comment on individual cases of censorship;
- develops the ability to argue and apply knowledge to new situations;
- develops in-depth text analytical skills;
- develops the ability to apply the acquired concepts to the analysis of various historical situations and especially current situations.

• Bachleitner, Norbert. From Paternalism to Authoritarianism: Censorship in the Habsburg Monarchy (1751–1848). Slavica TerGestina 26/1 (2021). 54–88. E-version
• Darnton, Robert. Censors at Work: How States Shaped Literature. London: The British Library, 2014.
• Dović, Marijan, ur. Literatura in cenzura: kdo se boji resnice literature? Primerjalna književnost 31, pos. št., 2008. E-version
• Dović, Marijan, ur. Slovenci in cesarska cenzura od Jožefa II. do prve svetovne vojne. Ljubljana: ZRC SAZU, NUK, 2023. E-version
• Dović, Marijan, ur. Slovenski literati in cesarska cenzura v dolgem 19. stoletju. Ljubljana: ZRC SAZU, 2023. E-version
• Green, Jonathon, Nicolas J. Karolides. Encyclopedia of Censorship. New York: Facts on File, 2005. E-version
• Režek, Mateja, ur. Zgodovina cenzure na Slovenskem od 19. stoletja do danes. Ljubljana: Nova revija (Razprave, 2), 2010.
• Vidmar, Luka in Sonja Svoljšak. In vendar so jih brali: Prepovedane knjige v zgodnjem novem veku iz zbirke NUK. Ljubljana: ZRC SAZU in NUK, 2018.
• Vidmar, Luka, ur. Cenzura na Slovenskem od protireformacije do predmarčne dobe. Ljubljana: Založba ZRC, 2020. Catalogue E-version

Essay 100 %

Marijan Dović is Associate Professor and Senior Research Fellow at the ZRC SAZU Institute of the Slovenian Literature and Literary Studies (Ljubljana). He also lectures at the Faculty of Arts (University of Ljubljana) and School of Humanities (University of Nova Gorica). He published Slovenian books on systemic and empirical approaches to literature (Sistemske in empirične obravnave literature, 2004), the development of the role of the literary producer (Slovenski pisatelj, 2007), the interwar avant-garde (Mož z bombami, 2009), and the canonization of the Slovenian national poet (Prešeren po Prešernu, 2017). With J. K. Helgason, he wrote National Poets, Cultural Saints: Canonization and Commemorative Cults of Writers in Europe (Brill, 2017). He co-edited thematic volumes on literature and censorship, publishing, book history, spatial turn in literary studies, and literature and music. His major publications in English address Romanticism, European cultural nationalism, national poets and “cultural saints”, the literary canon, systems theory, the interwar avant-garde in the Balkans, and the theory of authorship. He is the editor-in-chief of the comparative literature journal Primerjalna književnost (2016–) and a co-editor of the book series Studia litteraria (2018–). He was awarded the 2021 ESCL Excellence Award for Collaborative Research for the book Great Immortality: Studies on European Cultural Sainthood (co-edited with J. K. Helgason, 2019).

Selected bibliography:

• Slovenski literati in cesarska cenzura v dolgem 19. stoletju. [Slovenian Writers and Imperial Censorship in the Long Nineteenth Century]. Ur. / ed. Marijan Dović. Ljubljana: ZRC SAZU, 2023.
• Great Immortality: Studies on European Cultural Sainthood (co-edited with J. K. Helgason). Leiden: Brill, 2019.
• National Poets, Cultural Saints: Canonization and Commemorative Cults of Writers in Europe (with J. K. Helgason). Leiden: Brill, 2017.
• Prešeren po Prešernu: kanonizacija nacionalnega pesnika in kulturnega svetnika [Prešeren after Prešeren: The Canonization of the National Poet and Cultural Saint]. Ljubljana: LUD Literatura, 2017.
• Mož z bombami: Anton Podbevšek in slovenska zgodovinska avantgarda [The Man with the Bombs: Anton Podbevšek and the Slovenian Historical Avant-Garde]. Novo mesto: Goga, 2009.
• Slovenski pisatelj: razvoj vloge literarnega proizvajalca v slovenskem literarnem sistemu [The Slovenian Writer: The Development of the Role of the Literary Producer in the Slovenian Literary System]. Ljubljana: ZRC SAZU, 2007.
• Sistemske in empirične obravnave literature [Systemic and Empirical Approaches to Literature]. Ljubljana: ZRC SAZU, 2004.
• “National Poets and Romantic (Be)Longing: An Introduction.” Arcadia: Zeitschrift fur vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft 52.1 (2017), 1–9.
• “From Autarky to ‘Barbarian’ Cosmopolitanism: The Early Avant-Garde Movements in Slovenia and Croatia.” In: Goldwyn, Adam J. (ed.), Silverman, Renée M. (ed.). Mediterranean Modernism: Intercultural Exchange and Aesthetic Development. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. 233–250.
• “France Prešeren: A Conquest of the Slovene Parnassus.” In: Cornis-Pope, Marcel (ed.), Neubauer, John (ed.). History of the Literary Cultures of East-Central Europe: Junctures and Disjunctures in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Amsterdam: J. Benjamins, 2010, vol. IV. 97–109.
• “The Slovenian Interwar Literary Avant-Garde and Its Canonization.” In: Bru, Sascha (ed.). Europa! Europa?: The Avant-Garde, Modernism, and the Fate of a Continent. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2009. 36–48.