Nitra Symposium

The author is focused on chosen examples of representation of otherness in contemporary Polish and Slovenian children's literature, including the most known writers from Poland and Slovenia: Dorota Terakowska, Jana Bauer, Marcin Szczygielski, Majda Koren, Barbara Ciwoniuk and Svetlana Makarovič. The aim of this paper is presentation of philosophical and cultural aspects of suffering in these two Central European cultures (Christianity, including both Catholic and Protestant theologies, neoliberal ideology after the collapse of Communism, Romanticism, Slavic pagan heritage, experience of Holocaust) and their influence on the representation of suffering in chosen literary works. It includes also explanaition of active discussion with traditional representations of suffering in these cultures. The author is focused on mental and emotional suffering from otherness, which is in fact representation of contemporary cultural shift from large group mentality to individualism. She also explains different ways of overpassing this kind of suffering: self-acceptance, activity, inclusion toward institution and colleagues, imagination and internal discussion with official discourses. These images from contemporary children's literature are good examples of cultural change in the context of mental suffering.