Writing Homelands

The reading event aims at presenting an overview of literary creation in Slovenia over the last decade.

Young authors have always formed various groups. They often share a similar historical perspective and consequently related views on literature. Despite anthologising and communal performing, they have not established widely recognisable clubs, a practice that was possible in the past, when writers also seemed to have an important, occasionally perhaps even too powerful, influence on social life.

The way of seeing one’s homeland has changed accordingly. The great writers and poets of Slovenian modernism were considered our country’s fathers. Today’s writers see their native soil in a less sacrosanct light, but this does not necessarily suggest a lack of strong, even affectionate, attitude towards one’s homeland. It is just that this attitude is much more fluid and dependent on personal circumstances in our fragmented postmodern society.

In times of migration, at geopolitical crossroads, with the inhabitants of the former Yugoslav republics moving to study and work in Slovenia, and young Slovenians going to study and gain life experiences in the metropolises of the global North, where grand narratives and ideologies have been shattered into innumerable fragments, and where regional identities are taking on new meanings, young people are faced with the necessity of forming their own worldviews. The diverse perspectives on homeland and the status of the writing profession in today's society will be presented by a selection of authors belonging to younger generations: Katja Gorečan, Natalija Milovanović, Bine Debeljak, Liu Breza Zakrajšek, Sergej Harlamov, Primož Mlačnik, Katarina Gomboč Čeh, Selma Skenderović, Lukas Debeljak, Alex Kama Devetak, Lenart Sušnik and Ajda Bračič.