New book by Darko Dolinar on Slovenian literary studies

This November, Darko Dolinar published his new book, Slovenska literarna veda od Trubarja do druge svetovne vojne (Slovenian Literary Studies from Trubar to the Second World War). As volume 24 in the Studia litteraria series at the ZRC Publishing House, the book is a magnum opus for Dolinar, Comparative Literature professor, former head of the ZRC SAZU Institute of Slovenian Literature and Literary Studies and expert on the history and methodology of literary studies in Slovenia. His synthesis traces the development of scholarly treatment of Slovenian literature from the beginnings of the Reformation period through Baroque and the Enlightenment, to the nineteenth-century beginnings of Slovenian national literary history, the establishment of literary studies as a core university discipline in 1919 and the further development of its various orientations, including comparative literature, up to the outburst of the Second World War. Dolinar’s book fills in a long-standing gap in Slovenian literary studies. In a time of a deep crisis in the humanities, Slovenian literary scholars, researchers, teachers and students of literature are in need of thoughtful responses based on historical knowledge of the concepts, developments and previous crises in their discipline. Dolinar’s book provides one such response.