Boris Pahor in izbira slovenskega jezika

Abstract

This article deals with the language choice made by Boris Pahor, which is a key decision every multilingual writer has to take. By considering the objective and subjective factors influencing Pahor's choice – from the socio-political and historical Triestine context to Pahor's biographical aspects – I demonstrated that the motivations for writing and the symbolic relation with Slovene played a more significant role than the writer‘s linguistic skills. Pahor's written skills in Italian could at some point in writer's life have been more advanced than his Slovenes. Slovene, on the other hand, was the language he had to re-learn almost as a self-taught person. However, what determined Pahor‘s decision to write his novels in Slovene has to do with his need to strongly affirm his
neglected identity.