Slovenia as a narrative space of a spy novel

Roman Davida Millerja Spoznaj svojega sovražnika je poleti 1983 izhajal v podlistku časnika Delo. Objavljenih je bilo 67 nadaljevanj, v knjižni obliki pa ni izšel. Žanrsko gre za vohunski roman, zaradi česar ga uvrščamo med trivialno literaturo. Pisatelj, po narodnosti Anglež, si je za dogajalni prostor romana izbral Slovenijo oziroma njena turistično najbolj obiskana kraja Bohinj in Bled, zato se je potrebno seznaniti z nekaterimi osnovnimi pojmi komparativistične vede, imenovane imagologija, ki preučuje podobe tujega v nekem literarnem delu. Skozi zgodbo namreč spremljamo raziskovanje umora angleškega veljaka, hkrati pa spoznavamo lepote Slovenije, njene prebivalce, izpuščen ni niti največji slovenski pesnik France Prešeren. Ker jebila Slovenija takrat še ena izmed držav skupne države Socialistične federativne republike Jugoslavije, se pripovedovalec nekoliko dotakne tudi politične ureditve države in njenega gospodarskega stanja. V romanu se pojavlja tudi kar nekaj znanih predvsem angleških osebnosti, med katerimi gre izpostaviti zelo popularno pisateljico vohunskih romanov Agatho Christie.David Miller\u27s novel Meet your enemy came out in the feuilleton of Delo newspaper in the summer of 1983. 67 sequels were published but the novel has never come out in book form. As for the genre, it is a spy novel which makes it classified as trivial literature. The author, Englishman by nationality, chose Slovenia, strictly speaking, its most visited tourist sites Bled and Bohinj, for the narrative space of the novel. Therefore, it is necessary to be familiarized with some basic concepts of comparatist discipline called imagology which studies images of foreign in a literary work. Through the story we follow a murder investigation of an English personage and at the same time discover the beauties of Slovenia and its inhabitantseven the greatest Slovenian poet France Prešeren is not omitted. Since Slovenia was one of the republics in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia at that period, the narrator also slightly touches the political organization of the country and its economic situation. In the novel, there are also several famous, mostly English personalities among which Agatha Christie, very popular author of spy novels, should be highlighted