‟My Karst” by Scipio Slataper as a manifesto of the ‟New Literature”

The article is dedicated to the analysis of the autobiographical book My Karst by the Italian writer Scipio Slataper. Slataper’s work is far from a classical autobiography; it should be classified as experimental autobiographical prose, developed by a group of writers who gathered around the magazine Voce. My Karst fully meets the criteria set by the group for examples of “new literature”: it is a large literary work made up of autobiographical fragments in various styles, many of which are written in lyrical prose. According to the ideas of the magazine’s staff, My Karst is a work of deeply personal content, yet at the same time, it is a universal poetic statement. During the editing stage, the writer removes many fragments related to the details of his personal life. As a result, he creates a myth, the foundation of which is the story of his creative formation. Starting in the form of a fairytale about wondrous distant lands, My Karst transforms into an ironic tale of growing up and ends with a confessional narrative about the loss of love, in which the concept of enlightenment becomes especially significant. In his autobiographical book, Slataper sees an opportunity for cultural self-identification, for self-determination in the Italian literary process. The programmatic nature of the book is confirmed by the mention of the Voce magazine within the work itself. Slataper expects that his readership will not be limited to friends and like-minded individuals; he sees himself as a “people’s poet”, capable of conveying the revolutionary ideas of the group to a wider audience.