With the terms "otherness" and "differentness" I am aiming at two aspects of a nation's placement among nations: the vertical, which constructs a hierarchy on the basis of development and progressiveness, and the horizontal, which produces differentness. In researching Slovene culture, art and literature it is necessary to consider the cultural syndrome which, in stateless nations, replaces political institutions with cultural institutions and works of art (M. Hroch, D. Rupel). Moreover, with regard to stateless nations which for a long time belonged to second-class empires (Austria-Hungary, Russia, Turkey) or multinational states (Yugoslavia), it is also necessary to count on the fact that even in the hegemonic nation there is an ambiguous self-confidence, which includes doubt in the vertical western example and in its own capacity for progress (Yuri Lotman), while in the subjugated nations it creates division and the creation of alternative self-images and future visions (Madina Tlostanova).
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