Mityzacja i demityzacja kobiety w powieściach Ivana Cankara jako część pamięci zbiorowej i kulturowej
Mythologization and demythologization of the woman in Ivan Cankar’s novels as part of cultural and collective memory

Author(s): Alojzija Zupan Sosič
Subject(s): Cultural history, Culture and social structure
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: mythologization and demythologization of the woman; Cankar’s novels; Francka as a mythical mother; Judit as a contemporary woman
Summary/Abstract: Ivan Cankar, the Slovenian homo universalis, carried out, in various ways, the mythologization and demythologization of women in his novels. In the study, I found that the myth of the mother in the novel "Na klancu" ("On the Slope") was most firmly entrenched in Slovene cultural and collective memory, although in all ten of his novels and in other narratives Cankar also engaged in the demythologization of the mother as a saintly figure or the demystification of the woman as “the angel in the house”. Cankar’s most modern female character – the non-mythologized Judit in the novel "Mrs. Judit" ("Gospa Judit") – was not accepted by the critics at the time and later by the general public for several reasons: the enthusiastic acceptance of the “Marian cult” of the mother in the previous novel ("Na klancu"), the resistance of the conservative clerical and liberal communities to the critique of patriarchal society, and the ignorance of contemporary art and philosophy, e.g. the position of the female character in the literature of fin de siècle and Nietzsche’s philosophy.

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