Slovene literature is the literature written in Slovene. It spans across all literary genres with historically the Slovene historical fiction as the most widespread

Slovene fiction Slovene fiction refers to narratives written in Slovene about imaginary events, predominantly in literature. History The first narratives in Slovene were translations of German Catholic educational fiction. There were legends about wom ...

genre. The Romantic 19th-century epic poetry written by the leading name of the Slovene literary canon, France Prešeren, inspired virtually all subsequent Slovene literature. Literature played an important role in the development and preservation of the Slovene identity because the Slovene nation did not have its own state until 1991 after the Republic of Slovenia emerged from the breakup of Yugoslavia. Poetry, narrative prose, drama, essay, and

criticism Criticism is the construction of a judgement about the negative qualities of someone or something. Criticism can range from impromptu comments to a written detailed response. , ''"the act of giving your opinion or judgment about the good or bad q ...

kept the Slovene language and culture alive, allowing - in the words of Anton Slodnjak - the Slovenes to become a real nation, particularly in the absence of masculine attributes such as political power and

authority In the fields of sociology and political science, authority is the legitimate power of a person or group over other people. In a civil state, ''authority'' is practiced in ways such a judicial branch or an executive branch of government.''The N ...

Early literature

There are accounts that cite the existence of an oral literary tradition that preceded the Slovene written literature. This was mostly composed of folk songs and also prose, which included tales of

myth Myth is a folklore genre consisting of Narrative, narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or Origin myth, origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not Objectivity (philosophy), ...

fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic (paranormal), magic, incantation, enchantments, and mythical ...

s, and narrations.

First written text

The earliest documents written in the Old Slovene are the Freising manuscripts (''Brižinski spomeniki''), dated between 972 and 1022, found in 1803 in Freising, Germany. This book was written for the purpose of spreading Christianity to the

Alpine Slavs The settlement of the Eastern Alps region by early Slavs took place during the 6th to 8th centuries. It is part of the southward expansion of the early Slavs which would result in the characterization of the South Slavic group, and would ultimatel ...

and contained terms concerned with the institutions of authority such as ''oblast'' (authority), ''gospod'' (lord), and ''rota'' (oath).

First books

The first printed books in Slovene were ''

Catechismus ''Catechismus in der windischenn Sprach'' or simply ''Catechismus'' (Catechism, also known as or simply in modern Slovene), is a book written by the Slovene Protestant preacher Primož Trubar in 1550. Along with Trubar's 1550 book, '' Abecedar ...

'' and ''

Abecedarium An abecedarium (also known as an abecedary or ABCs or simply an ABC) is an inscription consisting of the letters of an alphabet, almost always listed in order. Typically, abecedaria (or abecedaries) are practice exercises. Non-Latin alphabe ...

'', written by the Protestant reformer Primož Trubar in 1550 and printed in

Schwäbisch Hall Schwäbisch Hall (; "Swabian Hall"; from 1802 until 1934 and colloquially: ''Hall'' ) is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg located in the valley of the Kocher river, the longest tributary (together with its headwater Lein) of the ...

. Based on the work by Trubar, who from 1555 until 1577 translated into Slovene and published the entire New Testament, Jurij Dalmatin translated the entire Bible into Slovene from c. 1569 until 1578 and published it in 1583. In the second half of the 16th century, Slovene became known to other European languages with the multilingual dictionary, compiled by Hieronymus Megiser. Since then each new generation of

Slovene writers Slovene literature is the literature written in Slovene. It spans across all literary genres with historically the Slovene historical fiction as the most widespread Slovene fiction genre. The Romantic 19th-century epic poetry written by the le ...

has contributed to the growing corpus of texts in Slovene. Particularly,

Adam Bohorič Adam Bohorič () ( – after 20 November 1598) was a Slovene Protestant preacher, teacher and author of the first grammar of Slovene. Bohorič was born in the market town of Reichenburg in the Duchy of Styria (now Brestanica in Slov ...

's ''Arcticae horulae'', the first Slovene grammar, and

Sebastjan Krelj Sebastian Krelj, also known as Sebastjan Krelj, Sebastijan Krelj or Boštjan Krelj (1538 – 25 December 1567) was a Slovene Protestant reformer, writer, pastor, linguist and preacher and regarded as one of the most educated Slovene Protestant ...

's ''Postilla Slovenska'', became the bases of the development of Slovene literature.

Historical periods

Middle Ages

Folk poetry

Protestant reformation

Counter-reformation

Baroque

Age of Enlightenment

1830–1849

1849–1899

Fin-de-siecle

This period encompasses 1899–1918.

Late realism

1918–1941

1918–1926

1918–1930

1930–1941

1941–1945

1945–1990

Neo-realism

Intimism

Intimism ( sl, intimizem) was a poetic movement, the main themes of which were love, disappointment and suffering and the projection of poet's inner feelings onto nature. Its beginner is

Ivan Minatti Ivan Minatti (22 March 1924 – 9 June 2012) was a Slovene poet, translator, and editor. He started writing poetry before World War II, but principally belongs to the first postwar generation of Slovene poets. He is one of th ...

, who was followed by

Lojze Krakar Lojze Krakar (21 February 1926 – 24 December 1995) was a Slovene poet, translator, editor, literary historian, and essayist. He also wrote poetry for children. Krakar was born in Semič in White Carniola in 1926. He studied Slavic languages an ...

. The climax of Intimism was achieved in 1953 with a collection of poetry titled ''

Poems of the Four Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in a ...

'' (), written by Janez Menart,

Ciril Zlobec Ciril Zlobec (4 July 1925 – 24 August 2018) was a Slovene poet, writer, translator, journalist and former politician. He is best remembered for his poems, publishing several volumes of poetry in his lifetime. In 1990 he became a member of the P ...

, Kajetan Kovič and Tone Pavček. An often neglected female counterpart to the four was

Ada Škerl Ada Škerl (3 April 1924, in Ljubljana – 29 May 2009, in Maribor) was a Slovene poet, writer and translator from French. Life Ada Škerl was born on 3 April 1924, in Ljubljana. During the Second World War, she was a member of the Liberation Fr ...

, whose subjective and pessimistic poetic sentiment was contrary to the post-war revolutionary demands in the

People's Republic of Slovenia The Socialist Republic of Slovenia ( sl, Socialistična republika Slovenija, sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Socijalistička Republika Slovenija, Социјалистичка Република Словенија), commonly referred to as Sociali ...