Pod Prešernovo glavo: Slovenska literatura in družbene spremembe: nacionalna država, demokratizacija in tranzicijska navzkrižja

The aim of Virk’s monograph Under Prešeren’s Head. Slovene Literature and Social Changes: National State, Democracy and Transitional Discrepancies is to analyse the structural changes in the Slovene literary system since its beginning, particularly the shift in the social role of the Slovene literature since the Slovene independence, gained in 1991. For this purpose, the study departs from broadly developed hypotheses about the nature of the relation between Slovene literature and Slovene society.

In the conclusion, Virk states that after 1990, the traditional role of Slovene literature has significantly changed. While in the period before 1945, it had been extremely socially important due to its national-constitutive and compensatory role, and in the period between 1945 and 1990 due to its political role as a compensation of the absent institutions and culture of political democracy, it has been severely marginalized and devoid of any such substantial social role after 1990. Today, literature seeks its new identity and needs to re-conceptualize and actualize its social role. In the final chapter, Virk indicates that such indispensable role could perhaps be found in the ethical dimension and potential of literature.