Projects / Programmes
Studies in Literary History, Literary Theory and Methodology
January 1, 2015
- December 31, 2021
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 6.07.00 |
Humanities |
Literary sciences |
|
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| H390 |
Humanities |
General and comparative literature, literary criticism, literary theory |
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| 6.02 |
Humanities |
Languages and Literature |
methodology of literary studies, literary and cultural theory, history of Slovenian literature, comparative literature, digital humanities
Researchers (14)
Organisations (2)
Abstract
Based on critical reflection on methods used in contemporary literary studies, the research program deals with the theory and history of literary discourse. It analyzes the general features of literary discourse, its historical development, geospatial variants, forms, styles, genres, and relationships with other signifying practices (i.e., other arts, economics, religion, politics, etc.), proceeding from semiotics, systems approaches, cognitivism, psychoanalysis, critical theory, and post-hermeneutics. As historical elements of discursive circulations and literary systems, texts are connected with various linguistic, cognitive, media, institutional, and sociocultural contexts.
The studies of the history of Slovenian literature from the Middle Ages to the present rely on preparing repositories of sources and their scholarly critical editions in book or digitized form. The development of Slovenian literature is interpreted in the light of international cultural-artistic, political, and socioeconomic processes at the intersection of the Mediterranean with central and southeast Europe. Medieval, Reformation, Baroque, and Enlightenment literature in Slovenia is examined in terms of its language, functional, genre, and social diversity, and its embeddedness in the geographical space and various lifestyles. The program also explores the impact of European cultural nationalism on Slovenian literature during the nineteenth century, and the role of literary mediation, canonization, and cultural memory. The study of the relationships between Slovenian literature and world systems includes the complex of “belatedness” and peripherality (using the case of novels), the penetration of Slovenian classic writers across the borders of their home literary system, the formation of a Slovenianized world literature canon (in literature, publishing, the school system, and literary studies), and the specific role of innovative Slovenian literature from the Moderne around 1900 to the 1960s (modernism and the avant-garde as social criticism and engagement).
The research program makes possible long-term, complex, coordinated, and interdisciplinary teamwork and international cooperation. The research findings will be regularly conveyed to the Slovenian and international professional community and the general public. They will be included in undergraduate and graduate programs, research volumes and collections of scholarly articles, scholarly critical editions of Slovenian literature (in print and electronic form), conferences, public talks, and the institute’s website.
Significance for science
Providing funding for research programs is a necessary prerequisite for the ZRC SAZU Institute for Slovenian Literature and Literary Studies to be able to continue its operation as a top-quality Slovenian and internationally recognized center for detailed and systematic study of literature, especially Slovenian literature. Stable funding is imperative for planned activities in areas that require long-term, complex, coordinated, time-consuming, and often interdisciplinary teamwork, and is equally important for keeping abreast of the latest developments in the humanities around the world. The findings of research programs, which will be expanded or further focused through Slovenian and international projects, will be regularly conveyed to the Slovenian and international professional community and general public (also via freely accessible websites) and included in the undergraduate and graduate programs offered as part of ZRC SAZU or at Slovenian universities.
The relevance of the research program for the international development of literary studies first and foremost lies in its expansion of the global inventory of literary and cultural processes with a methodologically modern, pluralist, and reliable presentation of Slovenian material. Based on this, the Slovenian literary field will be studied as an integral part of broader processes. The program team will also take part in international inter- and transdisciplinary literature studies, while bearing in mind and focusing on historically defined literariness. We will provide solid bases for the specialist disciplines included in these studies through our expertise. In terms of theory and methodology, we will continue to keep abreast of their latest international development and study specific material to actively contribute to producing conceptions that provide new insight into the structure, function, and meanings of literary texts, their production, circulation, and reception, and into the linguistic-cultural and socio-historical contexts and media through which literary discourse takes place and develops.
The program will also contribute to developing the discipline in Slovenia, especially through its international integration and modern methodology, which will demonstrate that the humanities are fundamentally different from the hard and applied sciences, but no less research-oriented and socially important. Using new digital technology, the program will protect and present Slovenian literature as the most important component of cultural heritage and national identity. In terms of history and theory, it will substantiate the importance of literature at the individual, national, and general social levels. It will offer reliable sources of information and expert knowledge to the public via scholarly communication, education, and the media.
Significance for the country
As fundamental humanities research, the program will first and foremost ensure permanent, high-quality, and methodologically modern protection and interpretation of Slovenian literature as a historical national identity framework, which is gaining special importance under today’s conditions of globalization, in which the world is reduced to an economy of survival, economic benefit, oblivion, and spectacle. The program will make it possible to improve Slovenian literary studies in terms of material, problems, and methodology, and to transfer this knowledge to all levels of education. Our text repositories, critical editions, and GIS databases will serve as a basis not only for literary studies in Slovenia and abroad, but also for research in other disciplines (general and cultural history, linguistics, social studies, geography, etc.). Through print, electronic, and online presentations, the program findings will be available to a wide circle of stakeholders, and we will seek to develop specific applications that will be useful for the tertiary sector, especially the book trade and tourism. Researchers will offer their expertise to research and educational administration bodies and to civil society, where they will be involved in scholarly and artistic associations, award committees, publishing, the media, and so on.
Most important scientific results
Annual report
2015,
interim report
Most important socioeconomically and culturally relevant results
Annual report
2015,
interim report
