Slovenian and Czech National Revival (1780-1848)

The content of the bi-lateral Slovenian-Czech project attempts to provide a model for conceptualisation of a broader multilateral project, ‘Cultural Saints in the European Nation-States’, which is in preparation at the Institute of Slovenian Literature and Literary Studies (Scientific Research Centre of the SASA, Ljubljana). In this context, the aim of the proposed Slovenian-Czech project is to research how the ideas of national revival, developed in the transnational matrix of the European cultural nationalism, were realised and embodied in the practices of Czech and Slovenian intellectual and literary elites from the end of the 18th century to the “spring of nations” in the mid-19th century. We will apply new approaches, such as the theory of cultural transfers, the concept of cultural planning, the theory of social networks and (regional) comparatistics. New and not sufficiently researched primary sources will also be considered, especially the correspondence (Zois, Kopitar, Zlobický, Dobrovský, Čop etc.). Special attention will be paid to investigation of the mutual Slovenian-Czech contacts through travel, education and correspondence, to the exchange of books and book collections (books from the Slovenian monasteries in the library of Schwarzenbergs in Česky Krumlov, book exchange between Zois and Dobrovsky) and to cultural planning, especiallyto shapingand disseminating the concepts of ‘Slavonic mutuality’ and other cooperative strategies of Slovenes and Czechs inside the Habsburg monarchy.Another section of the project will be focused on comparative study of the revival period in Czech and Slovenian literary and cultural history.From this point, the research of the correspondence of the Slovenian-Czech literary historian, linguist, folklorist and comparatist Matija Murko, which was already studied in the preceding bilateral projects, will be continued and finished.