Faculty of Humanities

The poem To the Poet represents one of the pinnacles of Prešeren's artistic expression, however, numerous interpreters had difficulties with its extreme pessimism. In accordance with the belief that one should first and foremost recognise “the sharp-sighted eagle” in the first national poet, interpreters tried to revaluate this pessimism with the cult of poetic mission. Empirical reception test demonstrated that the structure of the poem actually enables diverse, even completely illogical understandings of rhetorical questions, most probably on account of psychological influence of negation.

The article presents a literary-historical view of the role and significance of France Bevk’s literature by comparing it with the author’s role in secondary school reading materials. Seeking parallels with the literary-historical and schooling situations of Ivan Pregelj and Ciril Kosmač, the comparison is focused on the post-World War II period. While Bevk’s literary-historical position in the interwar period was preserved largely due to his role in building national awareness, after Slovenia’s independence, he became a somewhat marginalised secondary school author. The only text (optionally) treated in secondary school reading texts is Bevk’s novel Kaplan Martin Čedermac.

Although the poem To the Poet is one of the pinnacles of Prešeren’s artistic expression, numerous interpreters have had difficulties with its extreme pessimism. In accordance with the belief that one should first and foremost recognize the »sharp-sighted eagle« in Slovenia’s
first national poet, interpreters have attempted to re-evaluate this pessimism through the cult of the poetic mission. An empirical reception test has demonstrated that the structure of the poem actually enables diverse, even completely illogical understandings of rhetorical
questions, most probably on account of the psychological influence of negation.

Damir Feigel, primorski pisec humoristične proze, ki je največ ustvarjal v obdobju med dvema vojnama, je s stališča slovenske literarne zgodovine nedvomno obrobni avtor. Podobno je z njegovo prisotnostjo v slovenskih srednješolskih berilih, saj so se odlomki iz Feiglovih leposlovnih besedil pojavili le v zamejskih berilih, in sicer najprej v Budalovem Slovenskem cvetniku leta 1928, po drugi vojni pa še v Čekutovi Slovenski čitanki leta 1947 in v Slovenski čitanki za II. razred Mare Blažina s sodelavci leta 1948. V zadnjih desetletjih se povečuje zanimanje za Feigla kot pisca pustolovske, znanstvenofantastične in humoristične proze. Vsekakor pa je premalo ovrednotena vloga njegove humoristične literature v obdobju fašizma, ko je podobno kot širše znani France Bevk pomagal ohranjati slovensko pisano besedo in s tehniko prikritega sporočila spodbujal nacionalno zavest.

The paper presents a case study of the school interpretation of a medium-length narrative text based on the principle of a learning chain of fragments equipped with questions for close reading. This didactic approach became widespread in Slovenia prior to the Second World War, achieving systematic implementation with the publication of two workbooks for home reading: Zlati poljub (Golden Kiss) and Poljub zlata (Kiss of Gold) in 1998. After almost two decades of school use, it is time for a more detailed assessment of the approach and its usefulness. The assessment has been undertaken partly through a comparison of two learning chains that were created based on the well-known short story Tantadruj by Kosmač. The paper concludes with an interpretative attempt that connects Tantadruj’s search for happiness with the narrator’s search for creative inspiration.

Članek obravnava primer šolske interpretacije srednje dolgega pripovednega besedila, in sicer po načelu učne verige odlomkov z vprašanji za tesno branje. Ta didaktični pristop se je sicer na Slovenskem uveljavljal že pred drugo svetovno vojno, bolj sistematično uresničitev pa je doživel z izidom delovnih zvezkov za domače branje Zlati poljub in Poljub zlata leta 1998. Po skoraj dveh desetletjih šolske rabe je čas za natančnejšo presojo pristopa oz. njegove uporabnosti, tudi s pomočjo primerjave dveh učnih verig, nastalih po znani Kosmačevi noveli Tantadruj. Članek zaključuje interpretativni poskus, ki Tantadrujevo iskanje sreče povezuje s pripovedovalčevim iskanjem ustvarjalnega navdiha.

This monography focuses on two main problem areas: slovene literature and especially France Prešeren’s poetry in literature textbooks for secondary schools in the period from 1850 to 2010 and its reception throughout time and today. In the first problem area it illustrates the factors and procedures of the poet’s school canonization and how the didactization of the textbook as an aid for individual work with literary texts has developed. In the second problem area it explores both the characteristic features in the understanding, experiencing and evaluating Prešeren’s poetry, and the methods for an efficient school presentation. Prešeren has been a canonical author throughout all these 160 years, due to the fact that his canonization started while he was still alive. However, although he has always been referred to as “the greatest Slovenian poet”, he has not always been the leading author regarding the number of text units in textbooks. In fact, he was often overtaken by younger literates who were better-suited to the textbook editors’ affinities of the time. Particularly, in the second part of the 19th century, and even later, due to a negative attitude of the school authorities towards love poetry, the selection of Prešeren’s poems was considered less appropriate (for the lower stage, the sonnet Memento mori was usually published, whereas the students of the higher stage read the sonnet cycle Soneti nesreče [Sonnets of Unhappiness]). Some of the love poems were even censured. From the second half of the 19th century onwards a didactic instrumentarium of high-school textbooks has been in constant development (at first, notes were added, followed by questions and exercises for an active analysis of a literary work). But still, some compositions of textbooks showed a great didactic regression, especially in the period after World War II. The textbooks created since the Seventies include texts on literary studies as well as questions and exercises, whereas modern textbooks tend to develop in the direction of textbooks which only contain texts linked to the curriculum, and offer a relatively small range of literary works (except for, e.g. the Krakar’s anthology from 2003). A historical review has shown that even Prešeren’s contemporaries had difficulty in understanding his poems, and so did intellectuals or even Prešeren scholars later on. Empirical experiments among Slovene secondary-school students have proved that Prešeren’s poetry is difficult to interpret. Some of his most important poems (i.e. Krst pri Savici [The Baptism by the Savica]) require a large amount of footnotes. This is why the most adequate didactic measure to improve the experiencing of a stylistically demanding classical poetry is the prosification of the poem that comes as an appendix to the original – a fact that was fully confirmed by the results of the pedagogical experiment.

La poetessa Ljubka Šorli che certamente merita l’appellativo di „cantore della Tolminska“, non viene annoverata tra le autrici slovene più conosciute. La sua poetica attinge ai modelli formali di France Prešeren, mentre il linguaggio muove dal canto melodico e semplice di Simon Gregorčič. Oltre alle poesie per bambini, nella sua opera predominano
le poesie d’amore e quelle a sfondo religioso. Il serto di sonetti che la poetessa dedica al marito Lojze Bratuž si accosta a quello di Prešeren, dedicato a Julija Primic. Troviamo infatti in essi una corrispondenza non meramente formale in quanto le due opere possono essere accostate per i tre temi portanti: l’amore, la nazione e la poesia hanno in Prešeren lo stesso ruolo della fede in Ljubka Šorli. Si tratta in ambo i casi dell’ideale per eccellenza che offre al soggetto poetico la possibilità della salvezza dall’angoscia esistenziale. Se Prešeren propone in modo esplicito la volontà di risvegliare la coscienza nazionale nella Šorli questo compito rimane celato; il serto di Prešeren è un canto di speranza, quello della Šorli votato al ricordo triste e imperituro. Non facendo riferimento e alle differenze stilistiche (in Prešeren prevalgono immagini e metafore, nella Šorli fatti storici concreti), in ambedue le opere il rapporto di base tra il soggetto poetico e l’ideale è espressamente disarmonico.

Since 2007, an orchard of old fruit varieties has been developed at the village of Kojsko in the Goriška Brda region, designed by Gregor Božič, a young film director. It is conceived as a genetic bank, which enables preservation and dissemination of indigenous fruit varieties. It currently comprises about a hundred and fifty standard-size trees of various ages (from seventy to three years) and over a hundred varieties of cherries, apricots, figs, peaches, plums, pears and apples. Deliberately selected old varieties that are fairly resistant to diseases and have commercially interesting characteristics have been planted. The orchard, where all the trees have identifying labels, has been developed with the encouragement of two international projects: with the financial support of the Swiss contribution to the enlarged European Union and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development. The results of the project are two publications: the brochure Stare sadne sorte na Goriškem (Old fruit varieties in the Goriško region, in two parts) and the illustrated book Sadje sonca: bogastvo starih briških sadnih sort (The Fruits of the Sun: the Wealth of Old Fruit Varieties in Goriška Brda).

Disertacija obravnava dva problemska sklopa: poezijo Franceta Prešerna v srednješolskih učbenikih za pouk književnosti od leta 1850 do leta 2010 ter recepcijo Prešernovih pesmi skozi čas in v sodobnosti. V prvem problemskem sklopu razkriva dejavnike in postopke šolske kanonizacije Prešerna ter razvoj didaktizacije beril v smeri učne knjige za samostojno delo z besedilom. V drugem problemskem sklopu raziskuje posebnosti pri razumevanju, doživljanju in vrednotenju Prešernovih pesmi ter načine za njihovo čimbolj učinkovito šolsko predstavitev. 

Glede na to, da se je kanonizacija Prešerna začela že za časa njegovega življenja, je bil seveda  vseh 160 let kanonski avtor, vendar pa kljub nenehnemu označevanju Prešerna za "največjega slovenskega pesnika" po številu besedilnih enot v berilih ni bil vedno prvi avtor, pač pa so ga večkrat prehitevali mlajši književniki, ki so bolj ustrezali trenutnim afinitetam sestavljavcev srednješolskih beril. Predvsem v drugi polovici 19. stoletja in tudi kasneje je bil zaradi negativnega odnosa šolskih oblasti do ljubezenske poezije izbor Prešernovih pesmi praviloma manj primeren (na nižji stopnji je bil največkrat objavljen sonet Memento mori, na višji stopnji pa cikel Soneti nesreče), nekatere ljubezenske pesmi pa so celo cenzurirali. 

Od druge polovice 19. stoletja do danes se je razvijal didaktični instrumentarij srednješolskih beril (najprej so začeli dodajati stvarne opombe, kasneje pa še vprašanja in naloge za dejavno razčlembo leposlovnega besedila), vendar so še zlasti v obdobju po drugi svetovni vojni nekateri sestavi beril didaktično pomenili izrazito nazadovanje. Od sedemdesetih let dalje berila vključujejo tako literarnovedne vsebine kot vprašanja in naloge, sodobna berila pa se praviloma (izjema je npr. antološki sestav Krakar 2003) razvijajo v smeri vezanega berila z relativno majhno ponudbo leposlovnih besedil.
 
Zgodovinski pregled je pokazal, da so imeli težave z razumevanjem Prešernovih pesmi že njegovi sodobniki, kasneje pa tudi izobraženci, celo poznavalci Prešerna. Empirični preizkusi med slovenskimi srednješolci potrjujejo visoko recepcijsko zahtevnost Prešernove poezije. Nekatere osrednje Prešernove pesmi (npr. Krst pri Savici) zahtevajo izjemno gostoto dodanih opomb, zato je najustreznejše didaktično sredstvo za boljše razumevanje in doživljanje oblikovno in slogovno zahtevne klasične poezije dodana prozifikacija, kar so v celoti potrdili tudi rezultati pedagoškega eksperimenta.

Baptism at the Savica, an epic about the loss of Slovenian
independence , can also be understood as a successful attempt by France Prešeren to outwit censors and use the form of a historic tale as a metaphor for expressing the content which, due to censorship, had to be omitted from his elegy Dem Andenken des Matthias Čop. Such an approach can help us resolve several apparent contradictions, shown in the interpretative history of the Baptism, such as the problem of Prešeren's own characterisation of the poem in his letter to Čelakovský, or the question of Črtomir's conversion at the end of the third part of this epic poem. In the 20 th century, several interpretations came into being that understood Črtomir's conversion to Christianity as an inevitable choice made by Slovenians in favour of a stronger, uniquely prospective Western culture circle, which serves as justification for Črtomir's renunciation of freedom-loving Slovenianhood. According to the new understanding of The Baptism at the Savica, there are two Črtomirs, one is the hero and the other is the defeated one (the former, as he himself would like to be, is only an illusion by Prešeren, and the latter, as he indeed is, is the one with whom the poet completely identifies himself), and the final message of the epic poem is understood as a condemnation of national inequality.

The paper, referring to the school selection of Prešeren's poems, deals with the problem of evaluating Prešeren's poems. When selecting literary texts for secondary school reading books, the modern literature didactics recommend giving priority to the principles of reception and literary history. A study of the evaluation criteria of three leading experts on Prešeren from the second half of the 20 th century brings recognition that, in spite of significant differences between them, literary historians, above all, value formally complex and receptively demanding poems belonging to the central period of Prešeren's romanticism. Although the influence of literary-historical principle is also noticed in secondary school students, these attribute the most value to Prešeren's poems with simple forms and less demanding reception, predominantly those that have a story, are easier to understand and provide a complete experience.

Old fruit varieties in the Goriško region 1-2 Following the introduction, which emphasizes the importance of preserving and disseminating old fruit varieties (during the time of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Goriško region was its fruit-growing paradise), the first part of the publication includes an interview with Bruno Podveršič, a pioneer in this type of research. The presentation of a Swiss organization, Pro Specie Rara, is followed by a description of early and summer varieties of: cherries, apricots, pears, peaches and cornel.

Prvi del publikacije po uvodu, ki poudarja pomen ohranjanja in širjenja starih sadnih sort (Goriška je bila v času Avstro-Ogrske sadjarski raj imperija), prinaša intrevju z Brunom Podveršičem, pionirjem tovrstnega raziskovanja. Po predstavitvi švicarske organizacije Pro Specie Rara sledi opis zgodnjih in poletnih sort: češenj, marelic, hrušk, breskev in drena.

An empirical study of understanding The Baptism at the Savica showed that Slovenian high school students had notable difficulties in decoding the basic meanings of Prešeren's poem. In literature, didactics offer three methods of facilitating reception of complex classical poetry: linguistic modernisation, addition of notes, and transmission into prose. Due to the cult status of Prešeren's poetry, modernizations can only be limited, while commenting hinders a spontaneous reading experience; as a result, only prosification entirely solves the problems of pronounced archaization, inverted word order and abundant metaphors in Prešeren's lines. This was confirmed by an empirical study in which high school students, who read the prosification together with the verses from The Baptism at the Savica, attested a comprehension which was twice as good as comprehension of students who only read the poetry.