CHILDREN’S LITERATURE IN POST-SOCIALIST SLOVENIA

Abstract

The present article discusses the image of child and childhood in post-socialist Slovenia
in 1990’s and beyond. Slovenia was part of former Yugoslavia (1918-1941 and 1945-1990), and
from 2004 member of European Union.
This short but accurate analysis of Slovenian Children’s Literature follows the theories
stated in From Mythic to Linear: Time in Children’s Literature (2000), in which Maria Nikolajeva
defined, systemized, and categorized literary texts by the characteristics through which the
maturation process of becoming adult is accomplished. The movement is from an initial
condition of primary harmony (Arcadia, Paradise, and Utopia) through different stages toward a
successful carnivalesque phase, poetically named You are Dead. Press Escape and Play Again or
a failed rite of passage as an important stage in life named collapse with poetic title Mission
complete – Mission Failed. A historical classification of Nikolajeva’s theory not concerned with
or not taking into account history or historical development of children’s literature, because she
examining a phenomenon that changes over time.
Application of theory on Slovenian children’s literature, have the similar results as in her
study. At the same time, we could find the idealized, carnivalesque and collapse genre not just
in children's novel but also in poetry and illustrations in children's literature too. We could also
find the elements of those genres also in Slovenian folk tradition e.g. folk songs and tales,
literary tales