The history of bookselling, printing and publishing in Slovenia also includes a less researched but important dimension-the role of women in the preservation and development of printing, publishing and bookselling activities. Although these activities were traditionally predominantly male domains, women also ensured their continuity. After the death of their husbands, some took over the management of printing houses and bookshops, supervised the production and distribution of books, and actively contributed to the Slovenian cultural space. Despite social prejudices and legal barriers that prevented public recognition of their work, some of these women were not only guardians of family crafts, but also entrepreneurs. With courage and ingenuity, they contributed to the development of Slovenian book production, as well as to early forms of women's emancipation. The story of Slovenian booksellers, printers, and publishers is thus more than just the history of books-it is the history of women who, in conditions of structural inequality, were also bearers of knowledge and culture.
The present paper continues the authors' prior research on the history of the theatre in Slovenia, focusing the German-language Estates Theatre in Ljubljana in the early 1830s and more specifically on the 1832/33 season, which was managed by the impresarios Eduard Neufeld and Heinrich B & ouml;rnstein. The season's repertoire is reconstructed on the basis of two surviving theatre journals as well as theatre posters from the National Museum of Slovenia's collections. The journals, which were prepared by members of the ensemble, contain not only lists of performances but also information on the troupe, anecdotes and literary vignettes, while the posters provide additional details about titles, authors, genres and casts. Although the journals are more reliable, the posters help provide a fuller picture of the theatre's repertoire practices. The paper first outlines the biographies and work of the two impresarios on the Ljubljana stage, then discusses selected plays from the season and reconstructs the complete repertoire. Special attention is given to the difficulties the impresarios faced in leasing the Estates Theatre, the specificities of the ensemble, and the challenges posed by the repertoire they conceived and brought before the Ljubljana audience.
The essay, as a form of critical and reflective writing that is not rigidly structured, relies both on the author's erudition and, where applicable, personal experiences. It has a long history and continues to be relevant, but it enjoyed particular prominence in the twentieth century due to its rejection of a totalising view of reality in late-modern thinking. The article first revisits the theses of prominent literary theorists, such as Luk & aacute;cs and Adorno, and literary critics, such as the Italian Berardinelli, who have sought to outline the characteristics of the essay, its manifold purposes, and its diverse modes of realisation. As a loosely codified genre, individual essayists choose to give more or less space to subjectivity, to frame their discourse hypothetically or anchor it in verified data, and to pursue aims that vary from case to case: sometimes epistemological, sometimes didactic, and often polemical. Through a comparative analysis, the article then highlights the diversity of aims and poetological and discursive approaches in two recent essays on Kafka by contemporary Italian writers, Mauro Covacich and Giorgio Fontana. Covacich (Kafka, 2024) adopts a simultaneously biographical and autobiographical approach, linking observations on Kafka's poetics to psychological dynamics, while Fontana (Kafka. A World of Truth, 2024) is more analytical and polemical in intent: its author seeks to overturn near-commonplace views about the Czech writer, offering a lesson in methodology. The comparison thus prompts reflection on the variety of approaches that the essay genre can, and repeatedly does, accommodate.
While research on the University of Graz student registers in its Jesuit era is well established, analysis of graduation data still is in its infancy. Taking Alojz Cindri & ccaron;'s valuable survey of Carniolan students and graduates from 1586 to 1773 as a starting point, the present study focuses on graduates from Carinthia, Carniola and Styria in the years of Charles VI's rule. In this timespan the university became increasingly confronted with state plans and guidance aimed at educating administrative, clerical, intellectual and social elites, which needs to be seen in an early Enlightenment context. After giving a concise description of the lists of graduates, the paper critically discusses problems analysing place names as well as information on class distinctions and then provides data on students' regional and class origins broken down by the traditional hierarchical degrees (bachelor and master, or respectively doctor of philosophy; bachelor and doctor of theology). Information on the theologians' affiliations in regional and hierarchical terms, which they had to disclose at the highest level of the doctorate as proof of the obligatory practice they had to perform, provide a rare insight into early clerical careers at the time of graduation. This data eventually also highlights how Carinthia, Carniola and Styria profited from the graduates' erudition, as Cindri & ccaron; has already suggested in the Carniolan case.
The present article offers a biographical and an academic profile of Stanko & Scaron;kerlj (1893-1975), who was a central figure in the field of Romance Studies in 20th century Slovenia and, along with Fran & Scaron;turm (1881-1944), established the study of Romance languages and literatures at the University of Ljubljana. Particular attention is given to his intellectual formation above all at the University of Vienna, where he was a student between 1911 and 1916, and then to his time at the & Eacute;cole des hautes & eacute;tudes in Paris in the early 1920s, where he completed another dissertation and obtained a further degree. Then his activity as a lecturer at the University of Belgrade is briefly discussed as well as later career, after the Second World War, at the University of Ljubljana. Finally, the paper focuses on some of his publications that highlight his three main academic interests: the study of language, the study of literature, and the development of the discipline of Romance Studies in Slovenia.
