Reality and Truth in Literature

Contents
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Preliminary Remark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
1. Literary Types as a System of Communication, and Art as an
Expression of Reality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
1.1 Aristotle’s Classification of Literary Genres and his Treatise on
Literary Reality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
1.2 Horace’s Poetical Treatise on Unity and Harmony in Poetry . . . . 37
2. Reality in Pre-Modern Philosophical Reflection on Art and in
Literary Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
2.1 Plato’s Bases for Recognising and Expressing Reality and Truth in
Philosophy and in Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
2.1.1 The Individual’s and the State’s Path to Justice . . . . . . . . 49
2.1.2 Criticism of Poets’ Depictions of Nature and Divine and
Human Behaviour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
2.1.3 The Real World and the World of the Senses as well as the
“Ancient Quarrel between Philosophy and Poetry” . . . . . . 53
2.2 Thomas Aquinas as an Interpreter of Polysemous Words and
Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
2.3 Art and Truth in Classics of Literary Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
3. Reality in Myth, History and Fiction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
3.1 Reality in Myths, in Literary Representations of History, and in
Poetry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

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Contents
3.2 Reality in Fiction and in Literary Portrayals of Historical Events . 81
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
4. Reality and Fiction in Biography and Autobiography . . . . . . . . . . 93
4.1 Autobiographical Literature as a Sub-Section of Biographical
Literature, and the Problem of Reality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
4.2 Some Classic European Biographical and Autobiographical Works 99
4.3 Seminal Works of Slovenian Autobiography . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
5. Presentation of Values in Literature and in Religious Traditions . . . . 119
5.1 Literature as a Distinct Mode of Thought and Foundational Values 121
5.2 Methodological Prospects Spanning Ancient and Modern Views . 131
5.3 Interpretation of Literature in Response to Challenges of
Intercultural and Interreligious Dialogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
6. Representation of Beauty and Love in Literature and in Philosophical
Reflections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
6.1 Representation and Explication of Beauty and the Relationship
between Aesthetics and Ethics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
6.2 Love and Inspiration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
6.3 Love and Justification of Forgiveness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
7. Reality and Truth in the Search of Love in France Prešeren’s The
Baptism at the Savica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
7.1 Love and Renunciation in Prešeren’s The Baptism at the Savica .. 191
7.2 The Motif of Vows and Devotion in Prešeren’s The Baptism at the
Savica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
7.3 Dominik Smole’s Contrary Literary Interpretation of The aptism
at the Savica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Index of Names and Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Index of Subjects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219