Trije Kafkovski romaneskni svetovi
Three Kafkian Romanesque Worlds
Slovenski sinopsis
English synopsis
English summary
Slovenski sinopsis
Primerjava treh sodobnih slovenskih romanov Galjot Draga Jančarja, Raza Ferija Lainščka in Stari pil Vlada Žabota s
Kafkovima romanoma Proces (1925) in Grad (1926) ter novelo Preobrazba (1916) kaže zanimive vzporednice in
hkrati odmike, ki v junakih slovenskih romanov potrjujejo stalnice slovenskega romana.
English synopsis
A comparison of three contemporary Slovene novels --- Galjot by
Drago Jančar, Raza by Feri Lainšček and Stari pil by Vlado
Žabot --- with Kafka's novels The Trial and The Castle and
his story Metamorphosis reveals interesting parallels, but also
some departures in the depiction of the main characters in the Slovene
texts, which are a continuation of certain enduring characteristics of
the Slovene novel.
English summary
A comparison of the romanesque world in the novels Stari pil, Galjot and
Raza and Kafka's late works The Trial, The Castle and Metamorphosis
reveals features that link these novels on three levels, viz. those of
the romanesque main character, the atmosphere and the composition. The
most interesting of the three is the comparison of the romanesque main
character, which is also in the focus of the present article. Common to
all romanesque figures is their existential void. An additional
characteristic shared by the literary figures in the Slovene texts is
one that continues through all the periods of the Slovene novel: despite
their existential uncertainty, they are languishing, passive and always
in pursuit of happiness.
The characters' uncertain identity is signalled already by their names,
which are either reduced to the initial letter (Kafka), a dubious, only
fictional identification of possibly unreal literary characters (Žabot)
or easy to mistake for another (Lainšček and Jančar). Heroes become non-
heroes, having lost all ability to act and with it the power at least to
try and make some effort to change the world. Their hopeless situation
makes any action absurd; the only reasonable thing to do is to wait, to
vegetate. In the relation between the public and the private, all the
characters experience feelings of foreignness, guilt, being watched, and
being helpless in their fight against powers that be. Relations among
people are estranged, even the most intimate relation between a man and
a woman is dehumanised and objectified. Making love is like animals'
copulation, in all these texts the domain of the intimate is public,
frequently associated with filth, which implies evil and a Kafkian
unbearableness of the world.
