Spoštovani,

ob stoletnici Cankarjeve smrti vas vabimo k sodelovanju na drugi Mednarodni znanstveni konferenci Slavistični znanstveni premisleki z naslovom Cankarjev list v cvetu bele krizanteme, ki bo potekala 30. in 31. 5. 2018 v organizaciji Oddelka za slovanske jezike in književnosti na Filozofski fakulteti Univerze v Mariboru.

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Na konferenci želimo z vidika novejših literarnovednih, kulturoloških in jezikoslovnih pristopov osvetliti pomen in vlogo Cankarjeve literarne ustvarjalnosti in njegovih kulturno-političnih idej v slovenskem nacionalnem in medkulturnem podonavskem prostoru.

V današnjem slovenskem literarnem kanonu in v kulturnem spominu Slovencev je Ivan Cankar (1876‒1918)  ohranil ugledno mesto. O tem pričajo nesporna umetniška vrednost njegovih literarnih del, zbrana dela v tridesetih knjigah, nove knjižne izdaje, zastopanost v šolskih berilih, prenosi v druge medije, gledališke uprizoritve, simpoziji in konference na najvišjih ravneh, zborniki, monografije, ugledni domači in tuji raziskovalci, fotografije, karikature, spomeniki, podoba na bankovcu za deset tisoč tolarjev in spominskih predmetih, poimenovanja šol, kulturnih ustanov, ulic, tekmovanj, bralnih značk idr. Na konferenci bomo razmišljali o vlogi pisateljevega literarnega opusa v medkulturnem prostoru nekdanjih skupnih večkulturnih držav (v Avstro-Ogrski, Kraljevini SHS, Kraljevini Jugoslaviji, Socialistični federativni republiki Jugoslaviji), v samostojni Sloveniji in v današnjem medkulturnem  prostoru Podonavske regije.

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Z vidika postkolonialne teorije in spričo nemškega kulturnega kolonializma slovanskih kultur na njenem obrobju se pogosto opevana večkulturnost Avstro-Ogrske zlasti v drugi polovici 19. stoletja ob naraščajočih nacionalizmih razkrije kot prevlada nemške kulture nad slovanskimi kulturami. Ideološke, socialne, politične, gospodarske in kulturne razlike so zgradile asimetrične odnose med kulturami in jeziki ter topografijo različnih središč in obrobij v monarhiji. V tem kontekstu se lahko sprašujemo o Cankarjevi slovensko-nemški dvojezičnosti, o njegovem odnosu do slovenske in nemške kulture ter iščemo odgovore, zakaj v večkulturni habsburški metropoli, kjer je z nekaj presledki preživel enajst let in ustvaril večji del svojega literarnega opusa, za časa svojega življenja nemškemu bralcu ni bil poznan in zakaj so njegovi načrti za uveljavitev na nemškem odru, o čemer je v prvih letih bivanja na Dunaju pisal bratu Karlu v Ljubljano, kmalu dokončno zbledeli. Po ugotovitvah literarne zgodovine ni imel osebnih stikov z elitnim krogom kavarniške dunajske moderne, vendar že samo bivanje v habsburški metropoli in še posebej njegova »dunajska« proza omogočata ne le dvokulturne, ampak tudi medkulturne raziskave na različnih ravneh, upoštevaje dejstvo, da vsako soobstajanje več kultur na skupnem prostoru samo po sebi poraja tudi medkulturne stike (Grosman 2004: 18). Primerjalne raziskave Cankarjeve proze opozarjajo na idejno-tematske, prostorske, estetske in slogovne sorodnosti ter razlike z nekaterimi pripovednimi deli Altenberga, Hofmannsthala in drugih, ki jih je Cankar na Dunaju prebiral in nekajkrat omenil v svojih zapisih.

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Cankar se je na Dunaju več kot desetletje sporazumeval v nemščini, literarno pa ustvarjal v slovenščini (v nemškem jeziku je napisal le cikel pesmi, nekaj časopisnih člankov in del korespondence). Nemško govoreči bralec s preloma stoletja bi se lahko s Cankarjevimi literarnimi in kulturnimi svetovi srečal le prek prevodov kot najpogostejše oblike medkulturnega srečanja z literarnimi besedili tujih kultur in jezikov. Vendar Cankarjeva dela z izjemo nekaj črtic za časa njegovega življenja niso bila prevedena v nemščino. S prvim knjižnim prevodom, tj. z novelo Hlapec Jernej in njegova pravica, se je v nemško govorečem prostoru in v drugih evropskih ter slovanskih kulturah pojavil šele med obema vojnama, izjema je le češki prostor, kjer je bil knjižno prevajan že pred prvo svetovno vojno. V poseben sklop sodijo raziskave o recepciji Cankarjeve literature v bivši Jugoslaviji kakor tudi o sodobni evropski in medkulturni prepoznavnosti slovenskega simbolista in političnega misleca. K slednjemu je od sredine devetdesetih let prejšnjega stoletja največ prispeval dr. Erwin Köstler s knjižnimi prevodi Cankarjevih del v nemščino, opremljenimi  s potrebnimi opombami in spremnimi študijami za tujega bralca.

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Dear colleagues,

On the centennial of Ivan Cankar's death, you are cordially invited to attend the 2nd International Conference Slavic Scientific Reflections entitled Cankar's Leaf in the White Chrysanthemum, which will take place from May 30th to May 31st 2018. The conference will be organized by the Department of Slavic Languages and Literature at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Maribor.

The conference aims to draw attention to the significance and role of Cankar's literary creativity and cultural and political ideas in the Slovene national and intercultural Danube region from recent literary, cultural and linguistic perspectives.  

Ivan Cankar (1876–1918) has retained a prominent position in both the contemporary Slovene literary canon and also in Slovene cultural memory. His undeniable literary artistic value is reflected in the publication of a collection of over thirty pieces of his work, in the reissuing and collections and monographs of his writing and the choice of his books as compulsory reading for school pupils. It is also seen in the adaptations of his work in other media, in theatre performances, prestigious symposia and conferences and the interest of renowned domestic and foreign researchers. It is aso attested to by the countless photographs, caricatures, monuments and memorials to him, his image on the ten thousand tolar banknote as well as the schools, cultural institutions, streets, competitions and reading badges that carry his name, etc. At the conference, we hope to examine the role of the writer's literary opus in the intercultural space of the formerly united multicultural states (Austria-Hungary, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia), in independent Slovenia and in the contemporary intercultural space of the Danube region.

Post-colonial theory and the German cultural colonialism of Slavic cultures on its fringes has revealed the often highly praised multiculturalism of Austria-Hungary, especially in the second half of the 19th century when nationalism was on the rise,  to be nothing more than the dominance of German culture over Slavic cultures. Ideological, social, political, economic and cultural differences resulted in asymmetrical relations between cultures and languages ​​and a landscape of centers and peripheries within the monarchy. It is within this context that we can begin to understand Cankar's Slovene-German bilingualism, his relationship towards Slovene and German culture, and attempt to establish why he remained unknown to German readers in the multicultural Habsburg metropolis, where he spent eleven years of his life on-and-off and produced most of his literary opus; we can also try to establish why his plans to take on the German stage, which he explained in letters to his brother Karel in Ljubljana during his early years in Vienna, were soon forgotten. According to literary history, he did not personally know the elite café Viennese Modern circle; however, his living in the Habsburg metropolis and the "Viennese" nature of his prose in particular enables not only bicultural but also intercultural research at various levels, especially if we accept that the coexistence of cultures in a common space spontaneously create intercultural contact (Grosman 2004: 18). Comparative research of Cankar's prose draws attention to some of the conceptual, thematic, spatial, aesthetic and stylistic similarities and differences to some of the narrative work of Altenberg, Hofmannsthal and others that Cankar read in Vienna and often mentioned in his own writing.

In Vienna, for more than a decade, Cankar communicated in German but produced literary works in Slovene (he wrote only a cycle of poems in German as well as some newspaper articles and part of his correspondence). A German-speaking reader living at the turn of the century would only have encountered Cankar's literary and cultural worlds through translation – the most common form of intercultural encounter with literary texts of foreign cultures and languages. Nevertheless, during Cankar's lifetime, with the exception of a few short stories, his work was not translated into German. The first translated work, the short story Hlapec Jernej and His Rights (Hlapec Jernej in njegova pravica), was only published in German-speaking areas and in other European and Slavic cultures between the 1st and the 2nd World War; the exception was the Czech region, where his work was translated before 1914. A special section on Cankar's work is dedicated to research on the reception of his literature in the former Yugoslavia, as well as on the contemporary European and intercultural visibility of the Slovene symbolist and political thinker. Erwin Köstler, PhD, has contributed most to this field since the mid-1990s with the translation of Cankar's work into German, combined with necessary notes and accompanying studies for foreign readers.