Ecocriticism: human ̶ animal relationship in selected animal fairytales of Svetlana Makarovič

Ecocriticism as a special literary discipline, its definition and research questions based on the work of Cheryll Glotfelty and other literary researchers (Lawrence Buell, Timothy Clark, Jožica Čeh Steger, Marjetka Golež Kaučič, Jelka Kernev Štrajn ...) are presented in the first part of the thesis. The circumstances of the rise of ecocriticism are described, along with its main characteristics that part ecocriticism from other approaches. The features of environmentally directed text are presented, as well as samples of research questions, which are the subject of ecocriticism. In the following part, life and work of Svetlana Makarovič, her relationship with animals and the definition of modern short story are presented. Seven chosen modern short stories with an animal as the main literary character from the collection Svetlana's Fairytales (Makarovič 2008) are analyzed from the standpoint of ecocriticism in the main part. The object of the thesis is to verify which ecocritical research questions can be used in the stories' analysis and in what range. Special emphasis is given to the human – animal relationship in the story