Literature in the essay in the high school exit exam in Slovenia, Italy, Austria, Croatia and Hungary

V prispevku prikažemo izsledke primerjalne analize esejskih oz. pisnih delov mature pri materinščini v Sloveniji in njenih sosednjih državah: Avstriji, Italiji, Hrvaški in Madžarski. Poleg maturitetnega eseja lahko (v Avstriji in Italiji) oz. morajo (na Madžarskem) dijaki pisati tudi druge besedilne vrste (npr. pismo, časopisni članek). Čeprav je razvita literarna zmožnost temeljni cilj pouka književnosti na gimnaziji, primerljiva dela maturitetnega izpita iz materinščine v Italiji in Avstriji z možnostjo izbire med različnimi nalogami omogočata, da se dijaki popolnoma izognejo vsakršni literarni temi, zato izpit ne preverja dijakove literarne zmožnosti. Matura ima povraten vpliv na pouk, zato lahko odsotnost književnih vsebin vpliva na njihov zmanjšani pomen v šolski praksi. Pri primerljivem hrvaškem, madžarskem in slovenskem delu maturitetnega izpita iz materinščine je literarna tema obvezna.The paper presents the results of a comparative analysis of matura essays or writing in the mother tongue in Slovenia and neighbouring countries: Austria, Croatia, Hungary and Italy. In addition to the matura essay, students can (in Austria and Italy) or have to (in Hungary) write other kinds of texts (e.g. a letter, a newspaper article). Although developed literary skills are a basic goal of teaching literature in secondary school, the comparative part of the matura examination in the mother tongue in Italy and Austria, by offering a choice of different assignments, mean that students can completely avoid any literary theme, and so the examination does not check the students literary skills. Since the matura has a washback effect on what is taught, the absence of literary content can contribute to its diminished importance in school practice. In the comparative part of the Croation, Hungarian and Slovene part of the matura exam in the mother tongue, a literary theme is compulsory