Citation

Bošnjak B. Slavisticna Revija 2010; 58(4): 475-487.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010)

DOI

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PMID

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Abstract

The introductory part of the article sheds light on the concept of violence from various scholarly viewpoints, on its understanding and definition, which are derived from ethical, philosophical, psychoanalytical, and sociological views. The central part of the article focuses on a detailed treatment of examples in selected works of contemporary Slovene short prose, which displays various manifestations of thematization of violence. With regard to the prevailing type of violence displayed, two large groups of short stories emerged, although it is also possible that in the one and the same work the elementary features of each may be interlinked: individual violence and collective violence. I ndividual violence (physical or psychological violence of one or more persons on another and violence to oneself in the sense of self-harm and suicide) was found in the following selected works of contemporary Slovene short prose: Drago Jančar: Pogled angela [Angel's gaze], Savana [Savanna], N oč nasilja [Night of violence], Ultima creatura (Ultima creatura, 1995); A ndrej B latnik: M aterin glas [Mother's voice] (Biografije brezimenih, 1989), Električna kitara [Electric guitare], N e [No], Popolni spomin [The perfect memory], Površje [Surface] (Zakon źelje, 2000); M ilan Dekleva: Reševalec ptic [Rescuer of birds], Z bliskom v krempljih [With lightening in the claws] (Reševalec ptic, 1999); Suzana Tratnik: Kurje uši [Chicken lice] (Na svojem dvorišču, 2003); M ojca Kumerdej: Pod gladino [Under the surface], M aščevalec [Avenger], A ngel varuh [Guradian A ngel], V roju kresnic [In a swarm of fireflies], Ponovitev [Repeat], Roka [Hand], M ernik sreče [A bushel of luck], N ekakšen sindrom [Some kind of syndrome] (Fragma, 2003); Lucija Stepančič: Prasec pa tak [What a pig] (Prasec pa tak, 2008). A ll of the analyzed short narratives that thematicize individual forms of violence also include individualism, i.e., typical narrative methods reveal small, quotidian, and intimate stories of regular people, which provides a common imprint for otherwise rather diverse authors' poetics. The collective violence of a group upon the individual, which is presented as structural (systemic) violence of various social institutions on individuals and the group, including ideological or transcendental violence, appears in the following selected examples of the contemporary Slovene short prose: A ndrej B latnik: Tanka rdečačrta [Thin red line] (Zakon želje, 2000); M arjan Tomšič: Ženska in pošast [A woman and a beast] (Onstran, 1980); Drago Jančar: Smrt pri M ariji Snežni [Death at the Lady of the Snows] (Smrt pri Mariji Snežni, 1985, Ultima creatura, 1995), A ithiopika, ponovitev [Aithiopika, a repeat] (Pogled angela, 1992, Ultima creatura, 1995), I ncident na livadi [The incident in Livada], and O genj [Fire] (Ultima creatura, 1995); Franjo Frančič: Istra, gea mea [Istria, gea mea] (Istra, gea mea, 1993); M ojca Kumerdej: M oj najdražji [My dearest one] (Fragma, 2003). I t became evident that individual and collective violence cannot be delineated clearly, as they converge at some point of socio-historical integration and social processes. The division makes sense particularly because of the time separation and the greater level of organization and systematization. A deep rooting of the individualistic paradigm in the contemporary Slovene short prose (with added process of ironization) needs to be noted, as it directly reflects the privacy of personal life and indirectly the public arena of social life.

Language: sk

Keywords

Violence; Contemporary Slovene short prose; The theme of collective violence; The theme of individual violence