Oton Župančič in začetki južnoslovanske tvorbe

Abstract

The paper presents the literary writings and cultural-political activities of Oton Župančič in the period before the World War I and during the war with the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes or the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, respectively. Based on the analysis of Župančič's cultural-political activities, his poems with national(istic) and political substance published in journals/newspapers, books of poetry – notably the collection V zarje Vidove (In the Vitus Dawn), selected essays, notes and correspondences, it was possible with respect to the mentioned period to discern his concern for the nation's fate, i.e. his attitude towards Slovene and Yugoslav identity. As a Bela Krajina native, he identified as both a Slovene and a Yugoslav at the same time. But his definition of an integral Yugoslav identity in the first few decades of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes did not include language unitarism.