Methodologies in Intercultural studies

The main objective of the course is to familiarize the students with contemporary methodological approaches in intercultural studies, as well as make sure that they are aware of potential uncertainties stemming from methodological pluralism. At the same time, we get to know the borderlines and actual frameworks of humanities and social sciences and search for areas of interconnectedness. We attempt to create a network of methods and approaches that can be used for analyses of complex academic and professional topics in humanities and social sciences. The students are engaged in creating their own critical analyses and judgments, especially through their seminar essays and regular participation in class.

The students should be familiar with the basic concepts of humanities and social sciences, with literary studies, sociology, cultural studies, history and anthropology as the main ports of entry into understanding national and world cultural history. The subject is interdisciplinary and transnational in its nature. The students should be capable of analysis and critical evaluation of various academic texts that address the global academic community. Additionally, they need to be familiar with main theoretical and methodological analysis approaches in humanities and social sciences. During our course, we upgrade these approaches and methods with a contemporary methodological scheme.

Intercultural studies are closely related to cultural studies, and, at the same time, also other disciplines within humanities and social sciences (especially anthropology). We could describe intercultural studies as comparative studies. The course is designed in an interdisciplinary and transnational way. Our strongest focus is still on the literary side, namely, on the literary studies, as the course is part of the Slovene studies program (for example, we expose and explain the notions of world and global literature and point out the terminological differences that are typical for different national environments). We address the question of global civilizations and their interrelations (e.g., Huntington, Said), the development of the information society and the media world, as they enable the civilizations to connect and, consequently, the creation of the global society, typical for today’s digital culture, or participatory culture. Moreover, we expose the notions of the public and the private sphere (e.g. Habermas’ theory), the functioning of memory and the importance of memory studies. Predominantly, we deal with connecting of the various methodological approaches and interculturally structured academic disciplines.

The students learn the terminology of intercultural studies and disciplines related to it. Furthermore, they get to know the points where cultural studies, anthropology, literary studies, media, communications studies, and memory studies conjoin. Students learn how to formulate their own arguments and how to make concise summaries of academic texts and respond to ideas that get presented in class in a comprehensive way.

The students have to pass the final exam and before that, achieve a high enough grade at their mid/term test as well as complete and present two seminar works. The mid/term test and the seminar essays are prerequisites for the students to be able to take the final exam. Mandatory (80%) attendance (lectures and the seminar) and participation in class discussions.

(Adjunct) Associate Professor dr. Leonora Flis. Leonora Flis focuses on literary theory, contemporary British and American Literature, film (especially in relation to literature), graphic novels and literary journalism. She also writes book and film reviews, translates scholarly texts and literary works, and writes short stories. She published a collection of short stories Upogib časa (2015) and in 2022 her new collection Enakozvočja is to be published. She was the recipient of the Fulbright fellowship and was a visiting Fulbright scholar at Columbia University in New York. She is the author of a monograph Factual Fictions: Narrative Truth and the Contemporary American Documentary Novel (2010). Her scientific articles have been published in Slovene and foreign journals.

The selection of published texts:

FLIS, Leonora. Social engagement and multiculturalism in Louis Adamic's literary journalism and documentary prose. Dve domovini: razprave o izseljenstvu. [Tiskana izd.]. 2020, št. 51, str. 59-75.

FLIS, Leonora. Med leposlovjem in poročanjem. Sodobnost. okt. 2021, letn. 85, št. 10, str. 1279-1292.

FLIS, Leonora. Grafične pripovedi in pripovednost. Primerjalna književnost, ISSN 0351-1189. [Tiskana izd.], maj 2020, letn. 43, št. 1, str. 51-74.

FLIS, Leonora. Družbeni angažma v literarnem novinarstvu Louisa Adamiča. V: DAUGUL, Larisa (ur.). Strpnost ni dovolj: prispevki s konference Iz mnogih dežel: ob 120. obletnici rojstva Louisa Adamiča, (Borec, ISSN 0006-7725, letn. 70 (2018), št. 751-753). Ljubljana: Sophia. 2018, [Letn.] 70, št. 751/753, str. [140]-149, 217-218.

FLIS, Leonora. Factual fictions: narrative truth and the contemporary American documentary novel. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars, 2010.

FLIS, Leonora. Profiling war: managing trauma in reporting horror: the case of Boštjan Videmšek. V: JOSEPH, Sue (ur.). Profile pieces: journalism and the "human interest" bias, (Routledge research in journalism, 13). New York; London: Routledge, cop. 2016, 226-239.

FLIS, Leonora. Obraz postkomunizmu Europy Wschodniej i Bałkanów w pisarstwie Slavenki Drakulić. V: GRACZYK, Ewy (ur.). Białe maski / szare twarze: ciało, pamięć, performatywność w perspektywie postzależnościowej, (Seria Wydawnicza Centrum Badań Dyskursów Postzależnościowych, t. 5). Kraków: Towarzystwo Autorów i Wydawców Prac Naukowych Universitas, cop. 2015, str. 151-166. Communism’s Legacy in Slavenka Drakulić’s Writing on Eastern Europe and the Balkan. (Podoba postkomunistične vzhodne Evrope in Balkana v zapisih Slavenke Drakulić).

FLIS, Leonora. Nonfiction comics as a medium of remembrance and mourning and as a cosmopolitan genre of social and political engagement. V: CORNIS-POPE, Marcel (ur.). New literary hybrids in the age of multimedia expression : crossing borders, crossing genres, (A comparative history of literatures in European languages, ISSN 0238-0668, vol. 27). Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2014, 230-250.

Texts to be published:

“Nan Shepherd’s Holistic World – an Intimate Triangle: Nature, Body and Mind in The Living Mountain”, volume
Representations, Scenes and Scenarios of Intimacy in Women’s Writing. Pro Universitaria Publishing House (https://www.prouniversitaria.ro/despre-noi/). 2022.
The Narrative of Migration and Feminism in Slavenka Drakulić’s Selected Works. Dve domovini. (Februar 2023).