Projects / Programmes
Studies in Literary History, Literary Theory and Methodology
January 1, 2022
- December 31, 2027
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 6.07.00 |
Humanities |
Literary sciences |
|
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| 6.02 |
Humanities |
Languages and Literature |
Slovenian literature, East-Central Europe, comparative literature, literary theory, textual criticism, cultural history (middle ages, baroque, enlightenment, romanticism, realism, modernism, avant-garde), multilingualism, literary genres, digital humanities
Data for the last 5 years (citations for the last 10 years) on
April 19, 2024;
A3 for period
2018-2022
| Database |
Linked records |
Citations |
Pure citations |
Average pure citations |
| WoS |
123 |
168 |
141 |
1.15 |
| Scopus |
160 |
305 |
262 |
1.64 |
Researchers (14)
Organisations (2)
Abstract
Using traditional and modern methods, the proposed research programme examines the theory and history of literary discourse, particularly in the Slovenian cultural space. Based on textual criticism, cultural history, semiotics, systemic approaches, theoretical psychoanalysis, sociology and a corpus linguistic approach to literature, the intrinsic traits of literature and its socio-historical context are analysed. To this end, the programme introduces digital literary studies and quantitative methods, especially stylometry and corpus analysis. Literary processes are explained against the background of language, other arts, religion, philosophy, science, politics and economics. Literary texts and literary life/culture are interpreted within national, regional and world history. Research of the history of Slovenian literature from the Middle Ages to the present results from our electronic text corpora, geo-referenced databases, repositories of manuscript and printed sources and their digital or printed scholarly editions. The approach to national literature is comparative, taking into account the crossroads of the Mediterranean and Central and South-Eastern Europe. The literature of the Middle Ages, the Reformation, the Baroque and the Enlightenment in Slovenia is treated comprehensively in its multilingualism, its continuities, its functional syncretism and its social differentiation. While the focus of research on the influence of European cultural nationalism on Slovenian literature has now shifted to narrative prose around and after 1900, research on 19th-century and modern poetry will be rounded out by a synthetic historical survey. The study of the literary canon and censorship, life writing and mountaineering prose expands. In addition to the historical avant-garde of the 20th century studied thus far, attention is given to modernist tendencies and the working-class fiction of the interwar period. The analysis of the connections between the transformative politics of the period 1968-89, neo- and post-avant-garde and alternative culture will be continued. The conducted analysis of the Slovenian periphery will be upgraded by an examination of the interaction of Slovenian literature with the literary world-system through comparison with other literatures in the post-imperial or post-colonial situation. The research programme is indispensable for long-term and interdisciplinary teamwork and international cooperation. The research results are communicated on a regular basis to domestic and foreign experts and the general public. They will be incorporated into undergraduate and postgraduate study programmes, scholarly publications and proceedings, and scientific-critical editions of Slovenian literature. In addition, the results will be disseminated through a variety of public events, international conferences and public lectures, including the content of the Institute's websites.
Significance for science
The research programme is central to the development of Slovenian literary studies on an international scale, as it will add to the global record of literary and cultural processes studies of Slovenian literature that include a modern methodological account, formal linguistic and semantic-thematic analysis of the Slovenian text corpus, including previously undiscovered or marginalised literature. Slovenian literature of the early modern period, the 19th century and the present will be treated comparatively as an integral part of broader historical processes in the region, in Europe, and worldwide. With this in mind, members of the Programme Group will engage in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary literary research internationally, particularly in the field of digital humanities. In accordance with international standards, digital repositories and text corpora will be built and scholarly critical editions of multilingual literature in Slovenia will be published. Based on this, computer-assisted genre, thematic, stylistic and linguistic analyses will be carried out. The latter will be complemented with qualitative approaches and with the interpretation and analysis of literary discourse. Awareness of the geohistorical variability of literary phenomena will be prominent throughout. We will continue to follow international developments in the field of theory and methodology and to exercise the power of critical thinking. Particular attention will be paid to publishing methodology, discourse theory, the theory of literary and semi-literary genres, stylistics and stylometry, corpus analysis and quantitative formalism, the sociology of the literary system (media, institutions, censorship, canon, ideologies), the theory of multilingualism, comparative aesthetics (the relation of literature to other arts), and the theory of literary historiography. Based on the study of concrete textual materials from the Middle Ages to the present, we will also contribute to the production of concepts that provide new insights into the structure, function and meaning of literary texts, their production, circulation and reception, as well as linguistic, cultural and socio-historical functions, including the media through which literary discourse functions and develops. The programme will contribute to the development of the humanities in Slovenia by discovering and recording the literary heritage, as well as by analysing this heritage and presenting it digitally or in print. The programme will conduct studies on Slovenian literature as a formative factor of national identity. It will historically and theoretically justify the importance of literature for the individual, the community and the world. It will provide the public with credible sources of information and expertise through scholarly communication, education and the media. The funded research programme is a prerequisite for the continued research of the Institute of Slovenian Literature and Literary Studies of the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU) as an internationally recognised centre of excellence for the multifaceted and systematic study of Slovenian literature in particular. Only stable funding enables long-term and planned engagement in areas that require complex, long-term and interdisciplinary teamwork. Programme research will be supplemented by even more extensive and refined analyses envisioned in national and international projects. The results will be promptly communicated to domestic and foreign experts and the general public (also via freely accessible websites) and included in the undergraduate and postgraduate courses offered at ZRC SAZU or at Slovenian universities.
Significance for the country
Anchored in the humanities, the programme research will employ a contemporary methodology to trace, interpret and preserve Slovenian literature as a historical framework of national identity. The importance of national literary repositories and "national" humanities, which include the Slovenian humanities with their internationally comparable methodology, is all the more evident in the ongoing globalisation, tectonic shifts in global power centres, populist degradation of knowledge, and the reduction of life to the economy of survival. Under these conditions, the weakest and most educationally distant strata are the most affected. A scholarly reappraisal of national literary history that goes beyond superficial generalisations and ideological-political appropriations of the past is a reliable basis for resisting these challenges. The research programme will enrich Slovenian literary studies in terms of study material, topical issues and methodology, and ensure that this knowledge is transferred to all levels of education. The textual repositories, digital corpora, scholarly critical editions and databases of the Institute will be the starting point not only for literary studies in Slovenia and abroad, but also for research in other disciplines (general and cultural history, linguistics, social sciences, geography, etc.). The results of the programme will also be available to the general public in the form of printed books, electronic and web presentations. Members of the programme group will make their expertise available to the bodies of scientific research and educational administration, as well as to civil society, where they will be actively involved in scientific and artistic societies, prize commissions, publishing, public media, etc.
