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Melbourne, September 3, 2001M
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Dragi prijatelji / Dear friends,
2001 has continued
to be a remarkable year for Thezaurus on the World Wide Web, in
its role as a cultural ambassador of Slovenian culture and language
on the Internet.
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August
has been exceptional with the success of the Slovenian
literary events in Melbourne. The Thezaurus website has
on average over 27 000 Hits a month, from visitors from
44 countries. 45% of our viewers are from USA,
30% from Australia and 10% from Slovenia.
In August we celebrated Slovenian contemporary literature
in Melbourne with two major public events: The Launch
of Slovenian Literator, an online archive of Slovenian
contemporary literature and organisation and promotion
of Melbourne part of Australian Reading Tour of Five Slovenian
Writers.
July
24-August 10, 2001: The Australian
Reading Tour of five Slovenian writers
With the motto
From the Heart of Europe - Walkabout
of Slovenian Writers Down Under
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The
Reading Tour and the project Literator.net were a presentation
and promotion of Slovenian literature for the English-speaking
audience, leading to closer cultural ties between Australia
and Slovenia.
The visiting literati were: the internationally reknowned
and widely translated poet Tomaž Šalamun,
the bestseller writer Evald Flisar, the leading postmodernist
writer Andrej Blatnik, Lela B. Njatin the writer of
the novel Intolerance which has been said to predict
the Balkan wars and Maja Vidmar, one of the leading
female poets of Slovenia.
There were four events in Melbourne, from 2 to 4 August,
involving the following institutions:
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Monash University, Centre for European Studies,
- Royal
Melbourne Institute of Technology, School of Creative
Media,
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the Victorian Writers Centre and
- Slovenian
Religious and Cultural Centre, Baraga House.
At
three venues, the authors read their poems or prose
in English and at Baraga House in Slovenian. After the
readings, question time was given and the audience had
the opportunity to meet them all, and enjoy stimulating
discussion.At Monash University, the seminar was held
in the Performing Arts Centre. It was chaired by Dr.
Slobodanka Vladiv-Glover, of Slavic Studies and Centre
for Comparative Literature, and introduced by Professor
Chris Wallace-Crabbe, Director of The Australian Centre,
University of Melbourne.
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| Reading
at Victorian Writers' Centre, Melbourne |
Writers
in conversation with participants
@ Victorian Writer's Centre, Melbourne |
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At RMIT the programme took place in the Radio Theatre
and was chaired by Di Websdale-Morrisey of the School
of Creative Media. The opening address and Launch of Literator.net
was given by Sasha Ceferin of ISSV. Chiron Morpheus the
web developer of the online literary archive presented
it on a stage screen. Then, Malcolm King, Manager of the
School of Creative Media gave a book presentation to the
five authors.
At the Victorian Writers' Centre, Kerry Watson, Programme
Officer chaired the readings. At Baraga House, Sasha Ceferin
chaired the programme. The readings were preceded by a
welcome by three secondary students of Slovenian from
the Sraj family, Matija welcomed the visitors, followed
by a prose reading by Lenka ,accompanied by Pavel on the
guitar. The Baraga programme has been shown briefly on
Channel 32 of SBS television.
There was considerable publicity and promotional activity
for the Tour and there was coverage by the media with
press interviews, for Melbourne radio stations, and for
the Age the main Melbourne newspaper.
The poems and prose read by the authors have been published
in a selection of their translated works in the booklet
, From the
Heart of Europe. Published this year for the Reading
Tour by The Centre for Slovenian Literature in Ljubljana,
copies were distributed to the audience. |
Literator.net - Slovenian Literary Cartography
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This
innovative internet archive of Slovenian contemporary
literature was presented on a large screen, during the
readings, presenting the five authors and at the end
of the reading program explained by the creator Chiron
Morpheus.
The basis for the archive is the anthology of Slovenian
poetry and prose compiled by the poet-writer Aleš
Debeljak, The Imagination of Terra Incognita: Slovenian
Writing 1945-1995.
The final selection of writers and the selection of
their most representative works will be finalised in
following two months in collaboration with the Association
of Slovenian Writers and other relevant writing institutions.
The
innovative and dynamic concept has been created by our
web developer Morpheus as a model for organic and thematic
presentation of Slovenian literary art.
Both events were well received by the the Australian
public and Slovenian community, with a great deal of
interest generated also in the Literator project.
High interest was generated about online Literator project.
Further discussions about its application and development
will take place in September with relevant Slovenian
professional institutions in Ljubljana.
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| Front
end of literator.net |
| Back
end (database editing console) of literator.net |
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Lep Pozdrav
/ Best Wishes,
Thezaurus Team
Aleksandra
Ceferin
Sandi Ceferin
Chiron Morpheus
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