Slovenian Studies in Austria and Slovenian Literary Studies

Abstract

This article discusses the development of Slovenian studies in Austria after 1918 with a special emphasis on current literary studies and its contribution to the discourse of scholarship on Slovenian literary studies. The first part provides an overview of the structural, staffing, and content-related dimensions of this discipline, which has gained a more independent profile within Austrian Slavic studies in recent decades. After the reform of the university act and the introduction of university-level Slavic studies courses in 1975, this was also largely contributed to by close contacts between the University of Klagenfurt and the Slavic and Slovenian studies departments in Slovenia, the research projects of the Graz Slavic Department, and the efforts to establish a Slovenian studies professorship in Vienna. Conferences, better structural embeddedness in Slavic studies departments, and the introduction of the first full professorship at the University of Graz also helped enhance the profile of Slovenian studies in Austria. Graz can also be considered the birthplace of research in Slovenian studies because in 1811 the first department for Slovenian was established at the Jesuit University there. Research in Slovenian studies in Austria has long been dominated by a linguistic and dialectology orientation, whereas literary studies only became popular in recent decades, especially with studies on Slovenian literature in Austrian Carinthia. However, Slovenian studies topics are dealt with not only by university and academic Slovenian studies, but also a series of other disciplines and researchers that make up a variegated network of institutions, structures, and individuals that share an interest in this subject and do not follow the model of Slovenian studies as national philology. Slovenian studies has a special place within Austrian Slavic studies because it deals with the language, literature, and culture of a neighboring country with which it shares its political past and the “European” present as well as one of its ethnic minorities. Both characterize the research orientation of Slovenian studies in Austria and its specific contribution to Slavic and Slovenian studies in Slovenia. – The second part outlines the research focal points of current Slovenian literary studies in Austria, with which it occupies a special place within Slovenian literary studies. The most productive thematic area is definitely Slovenian literature in Austrian Carinthia, which is also being studied by many Slovenian specialists in Slovenia. The theoretical and methodological approaches of Austrian researchers to Slovenian literature in Austrian Carinthia differ from Slovenian literary studies practice in that they place a stronger emphasis on the bilingualism and multilingualism of the region. In representative Slovenian literary-history overviews, one cannot generally find any reflection of the work by Austrian researchers, even though their contributions help shape the discourse on Slovenian literature and Slovenian literary history. Other research areas of Slovenian literary studies in Austria are not as explicit as the Austrian Carinthian topic and cover Slovenian modernism and its connections with Vienna, literature between the Enlightenment and Romanticism, and some extensive individual research focal points. – The author draws attention to the double meaning of the term “Slovenian studies” in Austria because, on the one hand, it denotes an institutionalized university and academic discipline and, on the other hand, the work by all professionals in Austria that more or less focus on Slovenian studies topics. The author concludes by assuming that, especially through research that deals with Austrian-Slovenian cultural heritage, Slovenian studies in Austria will continue to contribute its share to both the Slovenian and Austrian literary studies discourse and the literary history of both countries.