Contemporary literature
The early 1980s saw the beginnings of poetic pluralism, with less avant-garde aggression and more tolerance for diversity in literary form and content. The generation born around 1960 leaped into post-modernism, with Alojz Ihan (b 1962) and his 1986 collection Srebrnik ('The Silver Coin'), Aleš Debeljak (b 1961) and his Slovar tišine ('The Dictionary of Silence') and Uroš Zupan's (b 1963) Sutre, influenced by multicultural New York.
The youngest generation of poets is led by Peter Semolič (b 1967), Taja Kramberger (b 1970), Aleš Šteger (b 1973), Primož Čučnik (b 1971), Miklavž Komelj (b 1970), Tone Škrjanec (b 1953) and Lucija Stupica (b 1979).
No less influential are the prose writers Miha Mazzini (b 1961), Andrej Blatnik (b 1963), Feri Lainšček (b 1959), Franjo Frančič (b 1958) and Vlado Žabot (b 1958).
The playwright Dušan Jovanovič received a great deal of attention for his treatment of long-concealed social topics, such as the
Informbiro, a huge political scandal of the late 1940s and early 1950s which led to the imprisonment of many innocent victims, depicted by Jovanovič in
Vzgoja srca ('Educating the Heart', 1980). He also examined the problems of the Slovene political transition in his 1991
Don Juan na psu ('Don Juan Hits Rock Bottom'). In his 1981
Svatba ('The Wedding'), Rudi Šeligo (1935-2004) shed light on the loss of middle-class values.
Drago Jančar (b 1948) has played an important role, not only in prose but also in drama. His successful 1985 play Veliki briljantni valček ('The Great Brilliant Waltz') is a captivating drama about the consequences of totalitarian systems. The pioneer of the following generation of Slovene playwrights was Ivo Svetina (b 1948), with his poetic touch, while Tomaž Pandur (b 1963) brought the spectacular to its climax. His 1988 production Šeherezada ('Sheherazade'), as well as his 1996 Babilon ('Babylon'), were successful both in Slovenia and abroad. The 1990s witnessed the emergence of several outstanding authors, including Emil Filipčič (1951), Evald Flisar (b 1945), Vinko Möderndorfer (b 1958) and Matjaž Zupančič (b 1959).
An English-language bibliography of Slovene literature is available at
http://www.ijs.si/lit/slov_lit.html.
Short information on publishing in Slovenia is available in the chapter on Media.