Abstract
The article looks at how Slovene intellectuals and writers in the 1930s attempted to redefine the role of a small nation within the world-system in the face of global economic crisis, authoritarianism, imperialism, and the threat of fascist expansion. Three central interventions are examined in detail: firstly, Josip Vidmar’s culturalist defense of Slovenia as a nation defined by its intellectual and artistic achievements, which is contrasted with Edvard Kardelj’s Marxist reinterpretation of the Slovene national question as part of a broader anti-imperialist struggle; secondly, Anton Ocvirk’s peripheral model of comparative literary history, which emphasizes the creative contribution of small literatures to world literature; and thirdly, Vladimir Bartol’s novel Alamut as a national allegory of resistance, later reframed in global contexts ranging from totalitarianism to Islamic fundamentalism to post-9/11 terrorism. Together, these case studies illuminate how Slovene thinkers and writers mobilized cultural production, literary studies, and historical allegory to empower a small, so-called non-historical nation to assert historical agency and claim a place in world history in the decade preceding World War II. By revealing the transnational significance of peripheral cultural production in times of global crisis and showing how intellectual and artistic strategies can counteract geopolitical vulnerability and change perceptions of national identity, the article contributes to debates about the role of small nations in world history and world literature.
Alt Text Acknowledgement
1
Recommended Citation
Juvan, Marko.
"Small Nations, Big Debates: Empowering the Slovenes as a Subject of World History in the Critical 1930s."
CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture
27.3
(2025):
<https://doi.org/10.7771/1481-4374.5293>
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