Zašto je književnost značajna

The monograph Why Literature Matters is divided into two sections. The first, “The Task of Literature,” contains the essays dealing with the so-called literariness, with the relationship between literature and politics, and with the question of the social relevance of literature in general. Regardless the fact that the articles were written on different occasions, taken together they express the unified view of the author. The common denominator of the essays is the author’s belief in the unshakable importance and relevance of literature regardless of its actual social marginality, which in the case of Slovenian literature is due to the fact that literature no longer serves as a compensation for the lack of national sovereignty and democratic political institutions. The essays reflect on the status of literature under the new social conditions.
The author claims that literature can preserve its social relevance only if it focuses on its artistic quality and does not serve as a tool for political or other goals. In this way, it will develop its specific qualities, which is what society needs and expects from literature. In line with the so-called “ethical turn,” the author sees the real social relevance of literature in its ethical dimensions.
The second part of the book, “Essence and Perspectives of Literary Studies,” deals with the current (and permanent) crisis of literary studies in general and comparative literature in particular. The articles
in this part demonstrate the author’s unshakable belief in the continuing importance of literary studies and therefore argue for its independence. The author opposes the prevailing trend in recent decades in Western literary studies to merge with other fields such as sociology, cultural studies, media studies, and so on. He addresses the specificity of discourse in the humanities, which is more “essayistic” than the mode of hard science, such as in the natural sciences, because of its subject matter, literature, which is open to infinite semiosis.