Contemporary Slovene Literature

The main objective of the course is to develop and improve the students' literary interpretation skills. Special focus is given on developing the students' independence, innovativeness and their close reading skills by using appropriate literary-theoretical instruments, comparative literary analysis as well as by applying appropriate teaching methods.

There are no enrolment or degree requirements for the course.

The course is designed to teach the students to interpret literary texts in an advanced level and train them to be able to autonomously cope with texts of various literary genres. Selected texts of the 20th and 21st Slovene literature (poetry, prose, drama) are discussed. Slovene literature is contextualized from the perspective of literary creation elsewhere in the world. The focus is on the most recent developments in the field of Slovenian literature.

The course examines selected texts of contemporary Slovenian literature from the perspective of thematic connections between the texts (for example, themes of love, mourning, homeland), with an emphasis on interpretive reading and comparative analysis.

The students develop an ability to autonomously and meaninfully interpret the selected literary text by using appropriate terminology and logical argumentation skills. The students are able to convey their findings in an appropriate form in terms of teaching methods. They also prepare a seminar paper with the focus on comparative literary analysis.

Basic:

• KOS, Janko (2001). Literarna teorija. Ljubljana: Državna založba Slovenije. Catalogue
• JUVAN, Marko: Literarna veda v rekonstrukciji: uvod v sodobni študij literature. Ljubljana: LUD Literatura, 2006. Catalogue
• ZUPAN SOSIČ, Alojzija (2014). Za literarno interpretacijo. Jezik in slovstvo, letnik 59, številka 2/3, str. 117–128, 235. E-version
• DOLINAR, Darko in JUVAN, Marko (ur.): Kako pisati literarno zgodovino danes. Ljubljana: ZRC SAZU, 2003. E-version
• MIHURKO PONIŽ, Katja: Od lastnega glasu do lastne sobe. Ljubljana, Beletrina, 2021.

Additional:

• ECO, Umberto: The Limits of Interpretation. Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1994. E-version
• ECO, Umberto: O literaturi. Tržič: Učila International, 2005. Catalogue
• Fish, Stanley: Is there a text in this class?: The authority of interpretive communities. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1980.

Written exam.
(The condition for admission is the completion of tasks assigned by the lecturer during the year or during the seminar.)

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.