Il ‛diverso’ nella letteratura slovena tra secondo e terzo millennio. Qualche osservazione sulle vecchie e nuove barriere raccontate dalla prosa slovena degli ultimi vent’anni

Taking as its starting point four Slovenian novels published in the last fifteen years, each one focussing on a different form of diversity, this work seeks to present certain aspects of this small nation’s contemporary fiction – aspects which reflect cultural tendencies also present in other European countries but which also, however, are not without characteristics deriving from a specific local context. For each of the works under examination it has been sought to provide a brief illustration of the narrative mechanisms with which each of the four authors has approached themes such as individual alienation, homosexuality, Roma and immigrants. Basing analysis on considerations which have been influenced by imagology, that is to say the study of the way in which individuals and groups are perceived and represented by another culture, it is evident that recent Slovenian fiction is not exempt from the presentation of prejudices, stereotypes and clichés that diminish and belittle the “other” in favour of the “self”. At the same time, however, we may discern the possibility that these prejudices may be overcome: in all the four novels under examination it is the ‘outsider’ who narrates his/her own story, thus unavoidably creating a privileged channel of communication with the reader.