The emotions in the works of female poets in Venetian Slovenia are tied to the linguistic and cultural identity of the Slovenian minority and its precarious existence. Today, the patterns of life preserved in memory are being shattered by the emptying of villages, decaying houses, and the disappearing cultural landscape, which gives rise to sadness and anxiety, but also to defiance through love, hope, openness, and sensitivity. In an artistically transformed native dialect, these poets affirm their personal and collective values, strengthen the community’s selfconfidence, and appeal to the once hostile Italian majority for empathic acceptance.
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