Frequency: 2 issues per year Editor-in-Chief: Marko Jesenšek Founded in 2008 by a consortium of one American and four Central European universities at the initiative of a group of Slavists, the journal Slavia Centralis intends to publish works of interest to Slavic studies representing original research in Slavic linguistics and literary scholarship and particularly encourages interdisciplinary approaches. The name Slavia Centralis emphasizes the intersection of languages and cultures in the heart of Europe, where Slavic languages and literatures have evolved and flourished since the first millennium AD. Slavia Centralis encourages contributions treating the Slavic languages and literatures holistically, transcending borders and national canons, as well as exploring connections between Slavic and non-Slavic. While emphasizing innovative approaches and interdisciplinarity, the journal recognizes the fundamental value of deep philological knowledge and therefore particularly encourages contributions combining thorough and responsible use of relevant data with innovative approaches. Indexing: Digitalna knjižnica Slovenije (dLib.si); Digitalna knjižnica Univerze v Mariboru; Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ); European Reference Index for the Humanities (ERIH PLUS); KU ScholarWorks; Linguistic Bibliography, The Netherlands; Modern Language Association of America (MLA), Directory of Periodicals, New York; Scopus (Elsvier); Ulrich's Periodicals Directory, R. R. Bowker, NY, USA. License: CC BY-SA Annual subscription/single issue (print; outside Slovenia): 24,20 €/13,60 € Published with financial support of Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency (ARIS).
Oddelek za slovanske jezike in književnosti, Filozofska fakulteta, Univerza v Mariboru
Copyrights This journal is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike License (CC BY-SA). https://opendefinition.org/licenses/cc-by-sa/ Plagiarism Policy Slavia Centralis is a non-commercial, open access, electronic research journal. As such it pledges to uphold certain ethical principles regarding confidentiality, originality and intellectual fair play. Slavia Centralis takes copyright infringement and plagiarism very seriously and all submissions may be checked with duplication detection software. Authors must: Ensure that all work submitted is original, fully referenced and that all authors are represented accurately. The submission must be exclusive and not under consideration elsewhere. Obtain all permissions from copyright owners for 3rd party material (e.g. quotations, illustrations, tables, etc.). There are no fees associated with publishing in the journal.
Simpozij ob 110. obletnici rojstva Antona Vratuše
Znanstveni simpozij 110. obletnica rojstva Antona Vratuše, ki sta ga organizirala Slovenska akademija znanosti in umetnosti (I. razred za zgodovinske in družbene vede in II. razred za filološke in literarne vede) in Ustanova dr. Šiftarjeva fundacija, se je odvijal od 19. do 20. februarja 2025 v Ljubljani (Dvorana Slovenske akademije znanosti in umetnosti – SAZU) in v Murski Soboti (Dvorana Pokrajinske in študijske knjižnice – PiŠK).
Copyright (c) 2025 University of Maribor, University Press https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Ocena knjige Janje Vidmar Velika pustolovščina: razgibano življenje ustvarjanja zgodb (2024).
Ocena znanstvene monografije o Dostojevskem (K. Kroo, A. Faustov, S. Savinkov, 2022).
Jožica Čeh Steger, 2024: Razgledi po slovenski moderni: nacionalni, večkulturni in medkulturni koncepti, kratka proza in poezija
Ocena znanstvene monografije Razgledi po slovenski moderni avtorice Jožice Čeh Steger.
Ferenc Gregor, 2023: A szlovák nyelv magyar elemei
Ocena znanstvene monografije Ferenca Gregorja o madžarskih prvinah v slovaškem jeziku.
Marko Jesenšek, 2024: Imenitnost slovenskega jezika
Ocena monografije Imenitnost slovenskega jezika avtorja Marka Jesenška.
Marko Jesenšek, 2024: Poglavja o različicah slovenskega jezika
Ocena monografije Poglavja o različicah slovenskega jezika avtorja Marka Jesenška.
Znanost ni nepristranska – nemški nacionalizem na Inštitutu za geografijo Univerze v Gradcu s poudarkom na protislovenstvu
Science is not Unbiased – German Nationalism and Anti-Slovenian Attitudes in the Institute of Geography at the University of Graz. Čede and Fleck’s article translated from German (Čede, Fleck 2021) is a study on German nationalism at the Institute of Geography of the University of Graz. It focuses on anti-Slovenian topics, discussing Graz geographers who spoke about Slovenes or Slovenia under the influence of German nationalist mentality. The studied texts show that the authors were closely acquainted with German nationalist literature. Also the political and socio-cultural mentality that guided the authors’ research is now quite in the open. The study is based on hermeneutic textual interpretation.
Raba družbenih zvrsti jezika pri pouku slovenščine in širše v osnovnošolskem izobraževanju
Using Social Varieties in Slovenian Language Lessons and Broader in Elementary School Education. Spreading globalization and increasing digitization have affected the linguistic situation in Slovenia regarding languages in contact – both English on the one side and languages of immigrants on the other. Consequently, modern social conditions have blurred students’ perception about situational use of either literary or non-literary varieties of language. The Curriculum for Slovene (2018) is dichotomous, as it mainly introduces students merely to what literary and non-literary language varieties are. School is a key factor in the development of Slovenian language identity, and students must be introduced to the theory of language varieties with examples for everyday speech situations. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how to raise linguistic consciousness in school practices, i.e. not solely focusing on the attitude towards the literary variety, but also towards regional language types, especially to dialect and slang, which are most often used by students in everyday speech situations.
Glasoslovje prekmurskega govora Cankove skozi čas
The Phonetics of the Cankova (Prekmurje) Dialect over Time. This paper presents and describes the local dialect of Cankova, which according to Slovenian dialectology belongs to the Ravensko-Goričko local dialect of the Prekmurje region that adheres to the Pannonian dialect group. The dialect material for this article was collected in Cankova (data-point SLA T387) according to the questionnaire for the Slovenian Linguistic Atlas (SLA) and has been compared to older dialect material from the same village, published in 1909 in Avgust Pavel’s detailed description of the phonology of the Cankova (Prekmurje) dialect. The phonetics and phonology of this local dialect are presented in the article in greater detail.
Monolingualism vs. bilingualism: Formants as a personal identification of Slovenian and Italian vowels – absolute values versus ratios
Since the speakers in this research differ in age, gender, emotions, physical condition, etc., the absolute values of the formants are different. Comparing the ratios between the formants shows that the values of the ratios between the formants are much more stable and comparable than the absolute values. The present paper analyses the relationships between formants F1, F2 and F3 on the basis of published formant measurements for Slovene and Italian and determines whether the relationships are constant regardless of the absolute values of the individual formants. The aim of the study was to compare the Italian and Slovenian formant relationships in monolingual and bilingual speakers. The results show, among other things, that descriptive statistical measures for stressed vowels in monolingual Italian-Slovenian speakers display a decrease in the mean value of F2/F1 from front to back vowels, with a minimum value for central and back vowels.
»Kaj si pa ti kot politik naredil za ta uspeh?!«: Raba strokovnega jezika diplomacije med poslankami in poslanci državnega zbora v letih od 1990 do 2018
“How did you as a Politician Contribute to this Success?”: The Use of the Language of Diplomacy among Members of the National Assembly between 1990 and 2018. The aim of this article is to establish how the members of the National Assembly use specialised terminology in the field of diplomacy. Results of quantitative and qualitative analyses show that in their speeches MPs (1) often use technical terms from the field of diplomacy incorrectly or semi-colloquially; (2) when talking about the field of diplomacy, they often resort to journalistic language rather than the language of the profession; and (3) they use political language based on colloquialisms.
Reprezentacije spola, seksualnosti, etničnosti in družbenega razreda v sodobnih popularnih slovenskih kriminalkah
Representations of Gender, Sexuality, Ethnicity and Social Class in Contemporary Popular Slovenian Crime Novels. The article presents a systematic deconstructive and thematic analysis of the representations of gender, sexuality, ethnicity and social class in thirty-five contemporary popular novels by Sergej Verč, Tone Frelih, Avgust Demšar, Tadej Golob, Irena Svetek and Mojca Širok. Drawing on existing studies that deal with the conservatism of the genre and the culture studies’ distinction between the conservative poetics of detective fiction and its (potentially subversive) politics of representations, the author formulates a three-part classification of regimes of representations. The analysis shows that the Slovenian crime novels under consideration, despite some critical implications, fit into conservative and liberal regimes of representation. The dominant representations are beyond the critical regime of representations because the other representational regimes mystify class antagonisms, which rarely find themselves at the centre of crime-motivated relationships between victims, murderers and detectives.
The Essayistic Work of Helena Koder. The article presents the essayistic work of the renowned Slovenian essayist Helena Koder, who won the Rožanc Award for her book Krošnja z neznanimi sadeži (Tree Crown Bearing Unknown Fruit, 2024). Compared to other contemporary essayists Helena Koder’s texts are considered to be reflective essays with poetic elements, as she deals with central themes like art, culture and language. Her essays are both discursive and interpretive, while also containing side stories and dreams. The structure of her essays is carefully thought out, as each essay contains a photograph linked to its content, followed by an appendix at the end functioning as a supplement to the essay.
Preobrazba ljubezni v zreli in pozni ustvarjalnosti Franca Ksaverja Meška: med hrepenenjem, odpovedjo in predanostjo
The Transformation of Love in the Mature and Late Works of Franc Ksaver Meško: between Longing, Renunciation, and Devotion. The present paper offers a thematological and semiotic analysis of the transformation of love in the poetic, narrative, and drama works of Franc Ksaver Meško (1874–1964), presenting love as the emotional, ethical, and spiritual core of his poetics. Meško’s priestly vocation, which had led him to consciously renounce romantic love, profoundly shapes his literary imagination – from youthful idealization to renunciation, contemplation, and mystical devotion. Prominent motifs include romantic, maternal, patriotic, and saintly love, while his depictions of fallen women are imbued with empathy, inner conflict, and a didactic function. Meško’s writing draws on biblical patterns, Tolstoy’s The Power of Darkness, Cankar’s social sensitivity, and Andersen’s symbolism. This paper illuminates his portrayal of love as a symbolic language oscillating between longing and renunciation, emotional authenticity and transcendent silence, revealing the tension between the bodily and the spiritual, between silence and speech, and between suffering and sanctity.
Mrožkov Tango in problemi njegove recepcije na Slovenskem
The Problematic Reception of Tango by Slawomir Mrožek in Slovenia. The article focuses on the play Tango by t he Polish playwright Sławomir Mrozek and its fate on the Slovenian stage. Although it was staged in Belgrade and Ljubljana as early as in 1965, the same year in which it was first performed in Poland, it was later relegated to the theatrical margins. It re-entered the repertory of the Ljubljanska Drama theatre as late as in 2023. This paper analyses individual productions and critical reactions, and concludes that Josip Vidmar had a significant influence on the fate of its reception.
Vladimir Bartol and Film. The article deals with Vladimir Bartol’s attitude towards film. Film is present in Bartol’s artistic prose primarily as a means of stereotypically characterising female figures. His unpublished diary entries, however, show a different picture. Here, he compares his works of fiction with various movies, mentioning plans for the filming of his works and revealing his view on the question of why his novel Alamut did not see the planned feature-length film adaptation.
Valentin Vodnik, The Illyrian Odes, and Political Censorship
This article examines the first serious conflict between Slovenian poetry and the imperial authorities in the early 19th century using the example of two “Illyrian” odes by Valentin Vodnik. His “Ilirija Revived”, which was published during the French rule, brought serious problems for Vodnik after the restoration of Habsburg power in Carniola as he was accused of “Francophilia”. Following the Emperor’s decision, he was forced to retire and his poem remained banned for several decades. The present article outlines the dynamics of Vodnik’s relationship with the authorities and explains in more detail how and why he was subjected to political censorship.
Valentin Vodnik, “Illyria Revived”, Habsburg Monarchy, Slovenian poetry, political censorship
Copyright (c) 2024 University of Maribor Press https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Third Summer School of Slovene as a Second and Foreign Language »Slovenščina na prvi pogled«
Report
Civil Registers at the Turn of the 20th Century as a Mirror of Language Policy Between the Mura and the Sava River
The analysis of the introduction of Slovene into the registers of the Lavantine diocese between 1870 and 1919 shows that German was replaced by Slovene in 92.4% of parishes as a decision of the same parish priest or that of his replacement. In 7.5% of parishes, German was preserved until 1918/1919 (in the form of a linguistic continuum in towns and parishes along the border or close to the border). Individual deaneries partly implemented a language policy regarding language change, however, the dichotomy of town vs. countryside did not decisive a decisive role. The decisive role was played by the individual parish priest and his national commitment, possibly countered only by his own highly developed multilingualism and language switching in everyday life. In this context, the present research allows also for identifying parallels with the introduction of Slovene into education.
civil registers, language policy, Lavantine diocese, German, Slovene, multilingualism
Language Isolation of the Slovenian Language in Immigrant Communities. The Example of the Slovenian Community in Toronto
The Slovenian Community in Toronto has existed since the 1950s, when the members of the community began to associate in Slovenian churches (Our Lady Help of Christians, Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Parish), where they participated in activities of various societies and so preserved the Slovenian language that they used when they left their home country. In the new environment, the members mostly used the Slovenian language with their families and within the Slovenian community. Consequently, the language they used did not change in the same manner as it did in the home country. The purpose of the article is to present the isolation of the Slovenian language as a heritage language. In the everyday communication of 1st (and also 2nd) generation members of the community this can be observed in the use of the so called preserved language, namely the use of archaic vocabulary which is no longer used in present-day Slovenia. The symbolic function of the Slovenian language as a heritage language is also seen in the preservation of folk songs and prayer forms as a preserved tradition.
Slovenian immigrant community in Toronto, 1st generation members, Slovenian language, preserved language
Syntactic and Semantic Analysis of Clauses Introduced by Slovenian Koli-Pronouns
The aim of this paper is to illustrate the syntactic environments and the semantic features of clauses introduced by Slovenian koli-pronouns (also known as randomness relative pronouns), and to place them in the broader context of cross-linguistic research. Koli-pronouns express arbitrariness and freedom of choice, and thus introduce clauses that name sets of equally selectable referents or conditions. Depending on the type of complementation required by the superordinate clause, koli-pronouns can introduce nominal or adverbial clauses, functioning as subjects, objects, subject complements, object complements or adverbial adjuncts. They can also introduce disjuncts, which express the speaker’s attitude to the utterance, or conjuncts, which serve to link clauses or larger units of text.
subordinate clause, disjunct, conjunct, koli-pronoun, syntax, semantics, randomness, free choice
The Image of General Hludov in Slovene Translation of M. A. Bulgakov’s Drama “The Flight”
The article focuses on the analysis of allusions and attributed and unattributed references to the Revelation and other biblical texts referring to the main protagonist in Bulgakov’s drama Flight, the White Guard general Roman Hludov, in the Slovenian translation by Borut Kraševec (2016) from the point of consistency and preservation. The historical apocalypse in the drama is representative of the destruction of the old world, loss of homeland, loss of identity, deconstruction of old ideals and degradation of the human. Intertextual figures that Bulgakov intentionally uses to establish parallels with the biblical prophecy about the end of the world represent an important feature of the drama’s stylistic diversity. If the translator omits them, he deprives the text of one of the key features of the author’s significantly ambivalent style. The present paper investigates how, and if, these features are preserved in the Slovenian translation, and which translation strategies Kraševec used.
Flight, Bulgakov, translation, intertekst, allusion, citation
Srečko Kosovel and his Hybrid Form of (Constructivist) Diaries
The article focuses on the phenomenon of the diaries of the Slovenian avantgarde poet Srečko Kosovel, juxtaposing them with the diary entries of his contemporary F. T. Marinetti. Compared to Marinetti’s highly political and extrovert diaries about the birth of fascism, Kosovel’s diary is very intimate, conceptual, and lyrical. It comments the political life, but in a highly specific manner combining poetry, essays and other literary forms. Kosovel’s diaries thus represent an unexplored segment of 20th-century diaries, belonging to a specific avant-garde genre of diary writing, functioning as chronicles of introspection, while also producing an exceptionally original combination of personal and collective memory.
Srečko Kosovel, F. T. Marinetti, Futurism, Constructivism, Diaries, Avant-garde
Živi, želi, ljubi: pomenska polja intimnosti v slovenski in srbski prozi fin de siècla
The present paper analyses emotional and physical intimacy in Slovenian and Serbian prose from the late 19th to the early 20th century using word embeddings. Given the complexity of defining intimacy, we consider a broad range of relationships depicted in fin de siècle literature. The Word2Vec language model identifies eight semantic fields encompassing platonic and sexual relationships, including violence, since it seems to be semantically closely related to sexuality in the analysed literary works. Through a comparative study, notable differences between Serbian and Slovenian prose are established. Additionally, the article examines how these semantic fields manifest in works by male and female authors, providing insights into societal perceptions of intimacy and gender socialization.
word embeddings, computational literary studies, Slovenian literature, Serbian literature, distant reading
Kljubovanje materinstvu kot podedovani tradiciji in materinstvo kot odrešitev v delih Božene Víkove-Kuněticke in Jelene Dimitrijević
This paper deals with the dual aspect of motherhood in both the novel by the Czech writer Božena Víková-Kunětická (1862–1934) Vzpoura (1901) and the novel by the Serbian writer Jelena Dimitrijević (1862–1945) Nove (1912). Although they follow a similar poetic direction, these women writers nevertheless have different approaches to depicting the same themes. While Jelena Dimitrijević portrays the situations in both the Turkish and American settings with a sharp eye, focusing mainly on interpersonal relationships and women’s behaviour and integration into society, Božena Víková-Kunětická is more concerned with the concrete problems her heroines go through (e.g. infidelity in marriage, pregnancy out of wedlock, deviation from traditions and socio-cultural conventions). Although the novels Vzpoura and Nove are very different in their artistic and content structure, their common element is the motif of girls growing up at the beginning of the 20th century and their resistance to the expectation of continuing traditional relationships within the family. In both novels, motherhood is experienced as a set of fixed and permitted acts and practises of expected behaviour that must not be violated, but motherhood can also be understood in a broader sense as it relates to the function and role of women in a patriarchal family and a conservative society. In this context, we have tried to identify comparatively similar and different elements that these authors use to describe certain problems (e.g. women’s relationship to tradition, their rebellion, their defiance and the question of their free choice).
motherhood, break with tradition, sociology of the family, female principle, freedom
Couples modernes – literarni par v srednjeevropskih modernističnih gibanjih
The article reflects upon a specific phenomenon within Central European modernism: namely the couple composed of a New Woman and a Decadent. Focusing on Młoda Polska, Mlada Hrvatska, and Česká Moderna, the author presents three cases of literary couples: Stanisław Przybyszewski and Dagny Juel, Vladimir Jelovšek and Zofka Kveder, and Stanislav K. Neumann and Kamilla Neumannová. The findings prove that for a woman, to bond with a member of a literary movement was a way to gain access to the bohemian milieu and, more importantly, to the pages of the flagship magazines and, consequently, literary history.
Central Europe, modernist movement, New Woman, Decadent
The Female Voice in Gradnik’s Love Poetry and in Marguerite Burnat-Provins’s Le Livre pour toi
In several of the poems with a female lyrical subject from Alojz Gradnik’s first three collections (Padajoče Zvezde, Pot Bolesti, De Profundis), a strong erotic desire of a woman is expressed. Female erotic sensuality is also essentially defined in the collection of poems Le Livre Pour Toi (1907) by the French-Swiss writer, poet and painter Marguerite Burnat-Provins, translated by Gradnik and published in 1923 under the title Knjiga za Tebe. It is not to say that this French book had a direct influence on Gradnik’s love poems. The aim of this paper is therefore to make a more detailed inquiry into the existing literary-historical comparison of the literarisation of love by both authors, namely by analysing the concept of love and the position of women in the amorous relationship.
Alojz Gradnik, Marguerite Burnat-Provins, female erotic poetry, self-insertion poem, Slovenian-French literary contacts
Femme fatale in the Dramas of the Imperial-Royal Monarchy: from Wedekind and Wyspiański to Robida and Cerkvenik
The motif of women who with their seductiveness fatally influence men has a long history in the art world but they (as femmes fatales) became particularly distinct as they entered fin de siècle art in Vienna. The characters of F. Wedekind, A. Schnitzler or O. Kokoschka thus became paradigmatic, and their influence spread to the borders of the monarchy, where they were adapted in various ways. While a review of Polish literary works (S. Przybyszewski, S. Witkiewicz, S. Wyspiański) shows that these authors adopted a much less fatal and destructive version of the femme fatale, Slovenia (E. Gangl, A. Robida, A. Cerkvenik), in contrast, developed her most radical – fatal, or even satanic – version.
femme fatale, satanic woman, saint, fin de siècle, modern Polish literature, modern Slovenian literature
Altenberg’s and Cankar’s Constructs of Fragile Women
In the Vienna of the fin-de-siecle, Peter Altenberg and Ivan Cankar articulated different variants of the femme fatale and the femme enfant, which were an expression of the literary aestheticism and tabuing of feminism at the end of the 19th century. This paper presents images of fragile women in Altenberg’s collection Wie ich es sehe (1896) and in Cankar’s Vinjete (1899). Cankar frequently shaped the femme fragile in accordance with the decadent aesthetics of sickliness and death, while within the construct of woman-child and her angelic image he also articulated her unbridled erotic nature. Altenberg merged the descriptions of angelically beautiful sexless fragile women and ideal girls of prepubertal age with a programme of healthy life in nature, however, they cannot avoid the male erotic gaze and the transfiguration of his erotic fantasies.
femme fragile, femme enfant, short prose, eroticism, Peter Altenberg, Ivan Cankar