Slovenian Literary Discourse and Gender

Students gain knowledge about how gender identities are thematized and problematized in literature. They are able to recognize stereotypical images of gender in literary texts. Students understand how gender representations have been shaped in a historical perspective. They learn how gender works in the mechanisms of reception, canonization, and the literary market. They get acquainted with the virtual research environment Women Writers in History and other electronic databases, from which they can obtain information on the influence of gender on literary creation and literary mediation.

There are no enrolment or degree requirements for the course.

Predavanja:
− definition of basic terms: sex, gender, discourse;
− gender as a factor in the literary constitution of authorship: literary history and critique and female authorship,
− images of femininity and masculinity in selected Slovenian literary texts,
− thematizations of homosexuality in selected Slovenian literary texts,
− gender and literary transfer and transmission,
− gender and popular literature
Seminar:
Through interpretive reading, students deepen the acquired knowledge from lectures, critical reading of selected articles from the field of gender studies.

Students master basic literary-historical concepts related to the study of gender. They are able to problematically deal with literary periods, directions, currents and other literary phenomena, and to think critically about the relationship between gender (cultural and biological) and literary creation.

• Blanka Bošnjak: Vloga stereotipov v sodobni slovenski kratki prozi. Jezik in slovstvo. 50/2005.1. 25–36. E-version
• Katja Mihurko Poniž: Labirinti ljubezni v slovenski književnosti od romantike do II. svetovne vojne. Ljubljana: Sophia, 2008. V, 254 str. Zbirka Sodobna družba, 2008. Catalogue
• Katja Mihurko Poniž: Literarna ustvarjalka v očeh drugega: študije o recepciji, literarnih stikih in biografskem diskurzu. Založba Univerze v Novi Gorici: Nova Gorica, 2017. E-version
• Alojzija Zupan Sosič: Spolna identiteta in sodobni slovenski roman. Primerjalna književnost. Letn. 28, št. 2 (2005), str. 93–113. E-version
• Alojzija Zupan Sosič: Homoerotika v najnovejšem slovenskem romanu. Jezik in slovstvo. 50, št. 3/4 (maj–avg. 2005), str. [5] –16. E-version

Written exam.
(By continuously completing written assignments and actively participating in the seminar, students can obtain a 30 % grade point average.)

Prof. dr. Katja Mihurko, is the author of five scientific monographs (Boldly Different: Zofka Kveder and Images of Femininity; Labyrinths of Love in Slovene Literature from Romance to World War II; Eve's Daughters: Constructing Femininity in Slovene Public Discourse 1848-1902; Written with her pen: Breaks of Early Slovene Writers with the Paradigm of National Literature; Literary Creator in the Eyes of the Other: Studies on Reception, Literary Contacts and Biographical Discourse) and Zofka Kveder, editor of the Collected Works (five volumes have been published so far). She is active in international research projects, is the head of the Women Writers in History working group at the pan-European digital humanities network DARIAH and the head of the CEEPUS network of Women Writers in History. Her research areas are: feminist literary studies, gender studies, digital humanities, Slovene drama, Slovene-German literary contacts and the history of the Slovene women's movement.

• MIHURKO PONIŽ, Katja. Literary journey from north to south: the reception of Nordic women writers, their books and ideas in the Slovenian literary system. Nora, ISSN 0803-8740, 2019, vol. 27, iss. 1, str. 1–13, doi: 10.1080/08038740.2018.1551245.
• MIHURKO PONIŽ, Katja. Der Bruch mit der literarischen Tradition: Weibliche Identitätskonzepte in Zofka Kveders multikulturellem Œuvre. Germanoslavica, ISSN 1210-9029, 2016, jg. 27, nr. 2, str. 37–64.
• MIHURKO PONIŽ, Katja, PARENTE-ČAPKOVÁ, Viola. The new women from the margins. Interlitteraria, ISSN 1406-0701, 2015, vol. 20, no. 2, str. 184–198, doi: 10.12697/IL.2015.20.2.15.
• MIHURKO PONIŽ, Katja. Gendering the capital: Zofka Kveder's rhetorical construction of women's position in the urban topography. Neohelicon : acta Comparationis litterarum universarum, ISSN 0324-4652, 2014, vol. 41, no. 1, str. 63–76, doi: 10.1007/s11059-013-0221-x.
• MIHURKO PONIŽ, Katja. Ambiguous views on femininity in the writings of two "New Women" in the fin de siècle: Zofka Kveder's inspirational encounters with Laura Marholm's modern women. V:
  MIHURKO PONIŽ, Katja (ur.). Reception of foreign women writers in the Slovenian literary system of the long 19th century. Nova Gorica: University of Nova Gorica Press. 2017, str. 37–71. http://www.ung.si/media/storage/cms/attachments/2017/04/03/14/57/48/HERA.pdf.