Andrej Capuder’s Erotic Novel with a Second World War Theme

Abstract

Andrej Capuder strongly radicalized the concept of his Rapsodija 20 (20 Rapsody) in the novel Iskanje drugega (Looking for the Other). Together these two novels form a narrative diptych. Iskanje drugega has expanded the ideological range of Slovenian war prose, which is an important part of modern Slovenian literature. The short and more or less journalistic prose during the war initially and for quite some time thereafter expressed an extremely one-sided and apologetic idea that the winners had about the developments in the Second World War in Slovenia, and especially after 1951 and Kocbek’s short stories Strah in pogum (Fear and Courage) the war theme freed itself of ideological brakes and stylistic uniformity and started including the previously untouchable themes of the recent past and extending the freedom of narrative creation. In contrast, Capuder’s novel has consistently developed these developmental tendencies and represents their ultimate achievement. The writer discusses wartime historical developments in Slovenia, partly also before and especially after them, including a few love stories and other passages, from the viewpoint of the defeated. The anti-communist interpretation of the Yugoslav civil war in principle, and especially the moral condemnation of the senseless killing of the members of the Slovenian Home Guard immediately after the war, places this novel within the democratic layout of the narrative polyphony of the war theme. –  Like the majority of war novels, Iskanje drugega is also characterized by a combined narrative technique. Numerous stories, motifs, and characters are described based on real models, but never fully. In addition to being roman á clef, the novel contains markedly fictitious images. Iskanje drugega is thus not merely a Schlüsselroman, nor merely a fictitious narrative, but a combination of both. The novel’s internal structure is as diverse as its narrative technique. Its introduction is written in the first person, which, also taking into account its fictive dimension, points to the narrator’s or author’s identification with the narrative; in the remaining three parts the author again fictitiously distances himself from the story because the narration takes place in the less subjective third person. In the last part, Capuder introduces the writer (i.e., himself) into the narration and thus creates a narrative connection between the first-person beginning and the autobiographical ending of the novel.