LITERARY PUBLICATIONS OF NON-ELITE IMMIGRANT WRITERS IN THE MAGAZINE PARALELE – CHARACTERISTICS AND POSITION IN SLOVENE CULTURE

Abstract

More than 90% of all immigrant writers in Slovenia in the frame of contemporary Slovene culture belong to the category of non-elite or non-recognised writers, which is to say that, with rare exceptions, their work has been published in small, non-recognized Slovenian literary magazines and publishing houses, ethnic communities' publishing houses or even oftenly published by the authors themselves. The centre of non-elite immigrant literature are the magazine for questions of the culture of others' nations reprezentatives who live in Slovenia – Paralele which is dedicated to publishing of literary works in mother tongues and the literary festival Sosed tvojega brega, both in the organization of JSKD. The article offers analysis of poetics of the literary work (poetry, prose, eseys, drama, critics) of non-elite immigrant writers published in Paralele. The typical feauture of their literary work are the motifs of homesickness, craving, life in foreign environment, the question of identity, language and also general, life's and literary themes. All considered writers write in their mother tongues. On the other side the language is still the major Slovene ideological and cultural border and the major agent for their non-being part of Slovene national literature and culture. Even though the purpose of the Paralele magazine and the Sosed tvojega brega festival is to stimulate cultural exchange, crossing cultural borders and promotion of the literature written in other languages in the frame of Slovene culture, the fact is that the circle of readers of non-elite immigrant literature is narrowed on audience of the same and (eventually) other ethnic structures with a minimal participation of Slovene readers. The status of immigrant (elite and non-elite) writers should be improved with urgent (expert, collegial and media) problematization, defining of clear borders between asimilation and integration of immigrant literature, programs for integration of other languages' writers in Slovenian national literature, stimulation of their works' translations in Slovenian, sure implementation of multicultural politics, opening of big and not only small doors of Slovene culture in order everyone who live and create in Slovenia irrespective of nationality and language to find a place in Slovene culture.