Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.21857/m16wjcw129
SOFT CENSORSHIP OF HARD TEXTS: FROM TRDINA’S SATIRICAL “PEARS” TO NATIONALIST “FABLES”
Marijan Dović
orcid.org/0000-0001-8918-6814
Abstract
Janez Trdina (1830–1905) is one of the most remarkable figures of Slovenian
literature in the second half of the nineteenth century. His eclectic concept of literature,
quarrelsome character, and radical political views—republicanism, anticlericalism,
and above all (Slavic) nationalism—led to constant conflicts that were
detrimental to his teaching and writing career. The two episodes in which Trdina
most troubled the Slovenian public were more than thirty years apart. The first
was in 1850 and 1851, when Trdina, still a student in Vienna, published “The Tale
of the Golden Pear” and “The Assessment of Slovenian Poets”, thoroughly shaking
the cultural elite of the so-called old-Slovenians. The second followed in the
1880s, when the retired high school professor published “Fables and Tales of the
Gorjanci” and “Croatian Memoirs” in the literary journals of Ljubljana.
With his literary texts, which transcended genres and into which he wove his
socially critical views, Trdina irritated many contemporaries: first the old-Slovenian
notables from the circle of Janez Bleiweis, later above all the nobility, the Krainer
Germans with their Slovenian allies, moralists and clerics. Trdina’s criticism did not remain on the abstract or principled level, but attacked directly, ad hominem (albeit
in literary disguise): Trdina defamed the most prominent personalities without
hesitation, and problems were imminent. If one disregards the ban on Ljubljanski
zvon for students, Trdina’s texts were not subject to explicit censorship—but they
were nevertheless affected by repressive mechanisms that can be described as
soft censorship. After the first affair, Trdina remained virtually silent as a writer for
three decades, while the second affair contributed decisively to the resignation of
Fran Levec, the editor of Ljubljanski zvon, and the discontinuation of the liberal
journal Slovan.
Keywords
Slovenian literature; Janez Trdina; censorship; “Bajke in povesti o Gorjancih” (Fables and Tales of the Gorjanci); “Hrvaški spomini” (Croatian Memoirs).
Hrčak ID:
312836
URI
Publication date:
15.12.2023.
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