Page 97 - Vinkler, Jonatan, Ana Beguš and Marcello Potocco. Eds. 2019. Ideology in the 20th Century: Studies of literary and social discourses and practices. Koper: University of Primorska Press
P. 97
Searching for the Image of the Village in the Swirl of 20th Century Ideological Conflicts 97
of a peasant, who will not be only a medium of ecological, social and simi-
lar polemics (Hladnik 1991)?1
With the process of wiping the differences between life in the city
and that in the village, or more precisely, in the process of bringing the
village’s lifestyle closer to the style and standard of life in the city, and
with the simultaneous loss of rural distinctiveness, it becomes irrelevant
whether the story is set in one place or another. After all, rural prose does
not appear in any of the common typologies of contemporary Slovenian
prose: whether those by Blanka Bošnjak (Bošnjak 2005), Alojzija Zupan
Sosič (Zupan Sosič 2006) or later by Aljoša Harlamov (Harlamov 2012).
This is related to the fact that a number of studies on the depiction of the
city in Slovenian literature have been written over the last ten to fifteen
years, culminating in the Obdobja Symposium focused on the subject of
the city, while analogous studies on rural topics are rather rare in contem-
porary literature.
Writing About the Village After the Political Changes in 1989–1991
Nevertheless, it can be said that the rural environment can still be found
in a significant part of contemporary Slovenian prose, and with a consid-
erable success between the readers. At the same time, it is evident that the
authors are trying to refrain from the traditional ways of capturing the
countryside and to make it somewhat special by the use of literary teh-
nique. For example, in the novels by Marjan Tomšič (1939), Vlado Žabot
(1958) and Feri Lainšček (1959), the image of the countryside is strong-
ly lyricized and poeticized (Namesto koga roža cveti, Oštrigéca etc.) while
bearing traces of “exoticism of marginalised Slovenian regions” (Zupan
Sosič 2006, 24).
Aljoša Harlamov also notes the same when he writes about the books
by Sebastijan Pregelj (1970):
Pregelj reinstitutes and recreates the traditionality, conservativeness of
an old village society with the elements of fantastic literature; prophet’s
1 “V sedemdesetih letih je z znanimi imeni (avtorjev) v kmečkem žanru tako rekoč ko-
nec … Prvorazredni ustvarjalci dali slovo kmečki povesti, nastalo praznino pa so po
sili razmer zapolnili amaterski pisatelji. Z izogibanjem kmečki tematiki je ekskluzivi-
stični elitni literarni program nevede naredil uradni politiki do kmetov najlepšo uslu-
go … Si je sodobnemu avtorju mogoče predstavljati literarno osebo kmeta, ki ne bo
nujno le medij ekoloških, socialnonazorskih in podobnih polemik” (Hladnik 1991).
of a peasant, who will not be only a medium of ecological, social and simi-
lar polemics (Hladnik 1991)?1
With the process of wiping the differences between life in the city
and that in the village, or more precisely, in the process of bringing the
village’s lifestyle closer to the style and standard of life in the city, and
with the simultaneous loss of rural distinctiveness, it becomes irrelevant
whether the story is set in one place or another. After all, rural prose does
not appear in any of the common typologies of contemporary Slovenian
prose: whether those by Blanka Bošnjak (Bošnjak 2005), Alojzija Zupan
Sosič (Zupan Sosič 2006) or later by Aljoša Harlamov (Harlamov 2012).
This is related to the fact that a number of studies on the depiction of the
city in Slovenian literature have been written over the last ten to fifteen
years, culminating in the Obdobja Symposium focused on the subject of
the city, while analogous studies on rural topics are rather rare in contem-
porary literature.
Writing About the Village After the Political Changes in 1989–1991
Nevertheless, it can be said that the rural environment can still be found
in a significant part of contemporary Slovenian prose, and with a consid-
erable success between the readers. At the same time, it is evident that the
authors are trying to refrain from the traditional ways of capturing the
countryside and to make it somewhat special by the use of literary teh-
nique. For example, in the novels by Marjan Tomšič (1939), Vlado Žabot
(1958) and Feri Lainšček (1959), the image of the countryside is strong-
ly lyricized and poeticized (Namesto koga roža cveti, Oštrigéca etc.) while
bearing traces of “exoticism of marginalised Slovenian regions” (Zupan
Sosič 2006, 24).
Aljoša Harlamov also notes the same when he writes about the books
by Sebastijan Pregelj (1970):
Pregelj reinstitutes and recreates the traditionality, conservativeness of
an old village society with the elements of fantastic literature; prophet’s
1 “V sedemdesetih letih je z znanimi imeni (avtorjev) v kmečkem žanru tako rekoč ko-
nec … Prvorazredni ustvarjalci dali slovo kmečki povesti, nastalo praznino pa so po
sili razmer zapolnili amaterski pisatelji. Z izogibanjem kmečki tematiki je ekskluzivi-
stični elitni literarni program nevede naredil uradni politiki do kmetov najlepšo uslu-
go … Si je sodobnemu avtorju mogoče predstavljati literarno osebo kmeta, ki ne bo
nujno le medij ekoloških, socialnonazorskih in podobnih polemik” (Hladnik 1991).
