Marcello Potocco, Nacionalni imaginariji ... - Pedagoški inštitut

Summarythe context of the common Canadian framework. According to somecomparatists ( Blodgett), this context is available to the comparative researchon its differing discourses and literary traditions. The situationin Canada is compared to similar attempts in Slovenian literary historyand is analysed with reference to works by Josip Vidmar, Dušan Pirjevecand Dimitrij Rupel, as well as France Kidrič and Ivan Prijatelj.The analysis of intertwined factors in the political, social and literaryspheres is concluded with a chapter that tries to define the causes fora particularly strong presence of national interpellation in the Canadianand Slovenian literary systems. The lack of diversified political and culturalinstitutions has long since been acknowledged as one of the mainfactors for such a development in Slovenia (e.g. by D. Pirjevec). Potoccoshows that national interpellation in literature as well as in literary historyhas weakened with the diversification of cultural institutions (includingthe national broadcasting system) in Canada in the years following1957, and with the Slovenian assimilation of the ex-Austrian institutionsafter the fall of the Austro-Hungarian empire. The school systemplayed a central role in this process. In Canada, the school systemfollowed British or French sources and didactic materials prior to the1960s and 1970s, while the 1970s saw a rapid rise in the use of Canadianmaterials. In Slovenia, language policy was one of the main pointsof contention. Although the status of Slovenian language had graduallyimproved, the total Slovenisation of the school system – includingthe didactic materials – became possible only in the Kingdom of Serbs,Croats and Slovenes. The third factor determining the national interpellationwas in both cases a relatively conservative publishing market(along with a conservative horizon of expectation), while in Canada, itwas also material factors that favoured the publication of foreign books.In the framework of these factors, Potocco analyses two characteristictexts of didactic national patriotism – the sonnet “Canada speaks ofBritain” by Charles G.D. Roberts, and the ode “Slovenja presvitlimu,premilostljivimu gospodu in cesarju Ferdinandu Pervimu ob veselimdohodu njih veličanstva v Ljubljano” by Jovan Vesel Koseski. Both areshown as examples of non-radical, loyalist cultural nationalism whichwas – at least in Canadian literary history – often designated with theterm »colonial mentality«.The third part of the book is dedicated to the study of English Canadianpoetry in view of its implicit or explicit national interpellation.The study focuses on selected examples of the so called »long poem«or »documentary poem«, a genre that is most suitable for ideological249