Izhodiščna metodološka predpostavka raziskave je, da mora razpravljanje o teh problemskih sklopih potekati na različnih ravneh, vse od literarno-estetske oziroma interpretativne pa do družbene ali celo politično-ekonomske, te ravni razločevati, obenem pa upoštevati njihovo kulturnozgodovinsko naddoločenost. Od tod nujnost interdisciplinarnega preučevanja, ki ga zahtevajo tudi strukturne posebnosti obravnavane problematike: v osemdesetih letih 20. stoletja se je namreč v Sloveniji, podobno kot drugod po Srednji in (Jugo-)Vzhodni Evropi, križalo več vzporednih družbenih, ideoloških in kulturno-umetniških procesov. Naslov raziskovalnega projekta meri ravno na to tranzicijsko navzkrižje in obenem korespondiranje literature in ideologije, etike in politike, demokracije in avtoritarnosti, nacionalne individualnosti in transnacionalne multikulturnosti.
Za razumevanje teh problemskih sklopov je v samem izhodišču nujna širša refleksija o položaju in vlogi literature (pa tudi literarne in kulturne zgodovine) v družbeni konstrukciji slovenske realnosti v desetletjih pred osamosvojitvijo in po njej. Ob tem je mogoče postaviti splošno tezo, da so ključ za razumevanje anatomije sodobne slovenske literature in kulture, tj. obdobja po letu 1991, osemdeseta leta 20. stoletja. V tem desetletju se je namreč zgostila večina družbenih antagonizmov, ki so pripeljali do razpada jugoslovanske večnacionalne države in jugoslovanskega »samoupravnega socializma«. Ta je bil poskus t. i. tretje poti v blokovsko razdeljenem svetu po drugi svetovni vojni. Vojne, ki so izbruhnile na tleh nekdanje Jugoslavije, leta 1991 najprej v Sloveniji, nato pa v letih 1991–1995 zlasti na ozemlju Hrvaške in Bosne in Hercegovine, retrospektivno potrjujejo tezo o zgodovinski neuspešnosti jugoslovanskega družbenega eksperimenta. Eno ključnih vprašanj slovenske literature, njene tematske osrediščenosti – še bolj pa drugih nacionalnih literatur z območja nekdanje Jugoslavije – je zato postalo vprašanje identitete: ne samo v nacionalnem smislu, ampak tudi glede odnosa do (pol)preteklosti, sedanjosti in prihodnosti, in sicer predvsem v luči evro-atlantskih povezav, globalizacije, liberalnega kapitalizma kot novega svetovnega reda itn.
Družbenim procesom, ki jih raziskava upošteva, lahko – po principu diskontinuitete v kontinuiteti – sledimo skoz tri obdobja. Prvo je desetletje pred letom 1991, ko smo priče vse večji krizi, razpadanju večnacionalne skupnosti (SFRJ) in nato slovenski osamosvojitvi. Naslednje obdobje je predvsem čas tranzicije (1991–2004), tretje (po letu 2004) pa zaznamuje vstop Slovenije v Evropsko unijo in NATO, se pravi, ponovna priključitev Slovenije večnacionalni skupnosti. Vstop v obe zvezi v letu 2004 je bil potrjen na referendumu. Mednarodnopravni in dejanski položaj Slovenije v Evropski uniji je drugačen od tistega v SFRJ v obdobju 1945–1991, ne glede na to pa lahko govorimo o nekaterih strukturnih podobnostih, saj je Slovenija ponovno postala del večnacionalne skupnosti. Ob tako začrtanem časovnem loku se raziskava ne bo mogla izogniti soočenju z aktualno krizo, ki jo po t. i. Veliki recesiji 2008 čutijo EU in njene članice, med njimi seveda tudi Slovenija; enako velja za NATO, ki mu doba Putin-Trump očitno postavlja nove izzive, mdr. tudi vprašanje skupnega imenovalca v vse bolj neenotni EU. V luči aktualnega dogajanja na mednarodnem prizorišču bo ena izmed nalog projekta – in s tem njegova relevantnost – tudi primerjalna analiza nekdanje Slovenije v SFRJ in sedanje Slovenije v EU in NATO. To pomeni, da bo projekt posegel neposredno v našo sedanjost, in sicer tako na »lokalno« kot »globalno«. To bo ustrezna podlaga za osrednji namen projekta: za presojo aktualnosti slovenske literature in njene družbene aktualnosti, pa tudi vpetosti v mednarodni prostor, ter za analizo odnosa med slovensko literaturo in družbeno realnostjo v obdobju po osamosvojitvi.
The initial methodological assumption of the research is that discussion of these problem areas must be conducted on different levels - from the literary-aesthetic or interpretative to the social or even politico-economic - it must distinguish these levels, and at the same time take into account their culturally-historical super-determination. Hence the necessity of interdisciplinary investigation, which is also required by the structural particularities of the problem being treated: namely, in Slovenia in the 1980s, similarly as elsewhere in Central and (South-)Eastern Europe, several parallel social, ideological and cultural-artistic processes intersected. The title of this research project points precisely to this transitional intersection and at the same time to the correspondence of literature and ideology, ethics and politics, democracy and authoritarianism, national individuality and transnational multi-culturalness.
In order to understand these problem areas, a broad reflection is essential at the outset on the position and role of literature (and also of literary and cultural history) in the social construction of Slovene reality in the decades before and after gaining independence. Here a general hypothesis can be posited that the key to understanding the anatomy of contemporary Slovene literature and culture, i.e. of the period after 1991, is the 1980s, since in this decade most of the social antagonisms accumulated that led to the collapse of the multi-national Yugoslav state and of Yugoslav “self-management socialism”. This was an attempt at the so-called third way in the world split into blocs after the Second World War. The wars which broke out on the territory of former Yugoslavia, first of all in Slovenia in 1991, then in the period 1991-1995 especially on the territory of Croatia and Bosnia-Hercegovina, retrospectively confirm the hypothesis about the historical failure of the Yugoslav social experiment. One of the key questions of Slovene literature, its thematic focus – but even more of other national literatures of former Yugoslavia – thus became the question of identity: not only in the national sense, but also with regard to the relation to the (recent) past, present and future, and that primarily in the light of Euro-Atlantic connections, globalization, liberal capitalism as the new world order, etc.
The social processes to be taken into account by the project can be followed through three periods – according to the principle of discontinuity within continuity. The first is the decade prior to 1991, when we were witnesses of the growing crisis, the collapsing of the multi-national community (SFRJ) and then of Slovene independence. The following period was primarily a time of transition (1991-2004), while the third (after 2004) was marked by the entrance of Slovenia into the European Union and NATO, that is, Slovenia’s repeated inclusion in a multi-national community. Entry into both alliances in 2004 was confirmed in a referendum. Slovenia’s position in the European Union in terms of international law and actual fact is different from that in the SFRJ in the period 1945-1991, but nevertheless we can speak of some structural similarities, since Slovenia again became part of a multi-national community. With such a time-span as outlined, the research will not be able to avoid confronting the current crisis, which was felt by the EU and its members, including Slovenia of course, after the so-called Big Recession of 2008; the same holds true for NATO, for which the Putin-Trump period obviously poses new challenges, including the question of the common denominator in the increasingly disunited EU. In the light of current happenings on the international stage, one of the project’s tasks – and thus its relevance – will be a comparative analysis of former Slovenia in the SFRJ and present-day Slovenia in the EU and NATO. This means that the project will encroach directly on our present, and that both “local” and “global”. This will be an appropriate basis for the central purpose of the project: to judge the topicality of Slovene literature and its social topicality, and also its inclusion in the international arena, and to analyse the relation between Slovene literature and social reality in the period after independence.
