Literature as Metalanguage of Culture

In this study, in the way consciously disputatious, a relation between Slavic linguistics and Slavic history of literature is presented. It indicates the contemporary crisis of the research within the field of the history of literature as well which arises from an epistemological state created by postmodernism. The article aims at defending a traditional position of the Slavic history of literature which is increasingly replaced by unprecisly defined 'neoslavistics'. This tendency evokes ceratin threats. All of them are related both with a possibility of loss of the essence of the research and the return to the 'nobleminded diletantism' which was typical, according to the authoress, for the initial period of the Slavic history (theory) of literature. The alternative proposal frames 'literature as metalanguage of culture' within the Slavic-oriented research. It, however, means the need for the acceptance of the new anthropological strategy of reading literary texts. This perspective creates a new reality in which the texts are seen not only as elements of culture within aesthetic terms but in the first place as records of the 'state of consciousness'. It opens new perspectives both within research and teaching methods.