- Key People:
- France Prešeren
- Ivan Cankar
- Related Topics:
- literature
- Western literature
- Slovene language
Slovene literature
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What is Slovene literature?
Slovene literature is the literature of the Slovenes, a South Slavic people residing in the eastern Alps and Adriatic coast. Though three religious texts and some folk poetry hint at early literary creativity, sustained literary activity began in the mid-16th century with the Protestant Reformation.
Slovene Protestants, including Primož Trubar, Jurij Dalmatin, and Adam Bohorič, created a corpus of writings that sparked a national revival around 1780. France Prešeren and Ivan Cankar are two of Slovenia's most influential writers. Though Slovene culture is not widely known internationally, Slovenes take pride in their artistic achievements.
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Which language is used in Slovene literature?
Slovene literature is written in the Slovene language, the official language of Slovenia, a South Slavic language. Literary activity began in the mid-16th century due to the Protestant Reformation. Primož Trubar, who wrote the first Slovene book in 1550, Jurij Dalmatin, who translated the Bible into Slovene in 1584, and Adam Bohorič, who established a Slovene orthography and analyzed Slovene grammar in 1584, created a corpus of writings in Slovene. Today, Italian and Hungarian are also spoken in Slovenia.
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When did Slovene literature first begin to develop?
Slovene literature saw its beginnings in three brief religious texts, the Brižinski spomeniki (c. AD 1000), and in folk poetry. Sustained literary activity didn't start until the mid-16th century with the Protestant Reformation. Despite having no literary predecessors, Slovene Protestants showed a clear national consciousness. Primož Trubar, Jurij Dalmatin, and Adam Bohorič created a collection of Slovene writings that sparked a national revival around 1780.
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Who is France Prešeren, and why is he important in Slovene literature?
France Prešeren (1800–1849) is Slovenia's national poet and a key figure in Slovene literature. Studying law in Vienna, he became familiar with European thought and literary expression. Mentored by Matija Čop, Prešeren introduced new genres to Slovene poetry, including the ghazal, ballad, and sonnet wreath, elevating the sonnet to unparalleled heights.
His notable works include "Farewell to Youth," "Love Sonnets," "Sonnets of Unhappiness," "A Wreath of Sonnets," and "The Baptism on the Savica." "The Toast" (Zdravljica) is now the Slovene national anthem. Despite career challenges and personal struggles, Prešeren's poetic creativity persisted. Today, he is celebrated annually on the date of his death, a national holiday honoring Slovene culture, with Ljubljana's central square named in his honor.
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What are some common themes found in Slovene literature?
Slovene literature began in the mid-16th century because of the Protestant Reformation. Despite having no literary ancestors, Slovene Protestants had a strong sense of national identity. Primož Trubar, Jurij Dalmatin, and Adam Bohorič created a collection of Slovene writings that even the Counter-Reformation could not destroy.
France Prešeren's poetry flourished in the first part of the 19th century, and Ivan Cankar's prose and plays portrayed urban and rural despair and modern anomie in the 20th century.
Slovene literature reflected the dramatic decades of the interwar period, Yugoslavia’s collapse in World War II, the brutal Nazi occupation of Slovenia, and the imposition of communism after the war.
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How has Slovene literature changed in recent times?
Slovene literature has played a crucial role in defining and sustaining the nation. After direct Communist Party control lifted in the 1950s, powerful currents from Europe and America, such as existentialism, modernism, and postmodernism, influenced Slovene writers.
In the final decade of the 20th century, Slovenia gained independence for the first time in over a thousand years. However, at the turn of the 21st century, it was unclear how Slovene literature would continue to define and sustain the nation as it had in the past.
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Slovene literature, literature of the Slovenes, a South Slavic people of the eastern Alps and Adriatic littoral.
Only three brief religious texts with Slovene linguistic features, the Brižinski spomeniki (traditionally c. ad 1000; Freising manuscripts) and folk poetry attest to early literary creativity among the westernmost South Slavs. Sustained literary activity began in the mid-16th century as a result of the Protestant Reformation. The Slovene Protestants, despite the lack of literary forebears, evinced a clear national consciousness: Primož Trubar, who wrote the first Slovene book (1550), Jurij Dalmatin, who translated the Bible into Slovene (1584), and Adam Bohorič, who established a Slovene orthography and analyzed Slovene grammar (1584), created, with others, a corpus of writings in Slovene that even the Counter-Reformation, which was otherwise successful in restoring Catholicism to Slovenia, could not eradicate. The words of the Slovene Protestants survived and helped to spark a national revival about 1780, under the aegis of the enlightened Austrian despots who then ruled the Slovene lands.
The Slovene Enlightenment is represented by a number of literary texts written in a lively and engaging Slovene. The adaptation by historian and playwright Anton Tomaž Linhart of Beaumarchais’s Le Mariage de Figaro is still staged in Slovenia, and the work of the first modern poet, Valentin Vodnik, is still anthologized.
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These writers paved the way for the full efflorescence of Slovene poetry during the first half of the 19th century, when France Prešeren, the Slovene Romantic par excellence, and his friend and collaborator Matija Čop introduced new poetic genres. Prešeren composed sonnets of unrivaled complexity and quality, especially his Sonetni venec (1834; “Wreath of Sonnets”). Extended prose works, however, would not appear in Slovene until the latter half of the 19th century, when Positivist writers such as Fran Levstik, Josip Jurčič, and Ivan Tavčar produced not only novels but short stories, plays, and literary criticism.
The first two decades of the 20th century were particularly rich. The poets Dragotin Kette and Josip Murn-Aleksandrov brought the neoromanticism of the central European moderne style to Slovenia. They were followed by Ivan Cankar (Hlapec Jernej in njegova pravica, 1907; The Bailiff Yerney and His Rights), the most widely translated Slovene author, whose prose and dramas depict brilliantly both urban and rural despair and modern anomie. Cankar’s contemporary, Oton Župančič, wrote poetry in a somewhat lighter vein, but his vision of Slovene deracination and dispersion rivals Cankar’s for vatic power. Cankar died just as the Slovene lands were partitioned among Italy, Austria, and the newly created Yugoslavia in 1918, but Župančič lived to experience fully the tumult of the interwar period, Yugoslavia’s collapse in World War II, the brutal Nazi occupation of Slovenia, and finally the imposition of communism after the war. Slovene literature reflected faithfully those dramatic decades.
The latter half of the 20th century, if less tumultuous than the first five decades, nonetheless produced literature that was no less rich and varied. Yugoslav, and with it Slovene, literature was liberated from direct Communist Party control early in the 1950s, but not before the career of one of the finest of Slovene writers, Edvard Kocbek, had been ruined because he dared to portray the Partisans of World War II objectively, in his masterpiece Strah in pogum (1951; “Fear and Courage”). Powerful currents from Europe and America—including existentialism, the absurd, stream of consciousness, magic realism, neoexpressionism, modernism, and postmodernism—soon made themselves felt as well.
In the final decade of the 20th century, Slovenia became independent for the first time in more than a thousand years. How—indeed if—Slovene literature would continue to define and sustain the nation, as it had done in the past, was not altogether clear at the turn of the 21st century.
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