Slovenian Autobiographical Children’s Fiction

Abstract

The article discusses Slovenian autobiographical children’s fiction which it defines as a subgenre of autobiographical fiction that thematizes childhood, is published for young readers or has crossed from adult to young audiences. This type of fiction emerged as a part of the process in which the model of the writer as an aesthetically autonomous artist was established. It flourished in the second half of the twentieth century and is almost completely absent from the contemporary Slovenian children’s fiction. The article analyses five texts, namely Moje življenje (My Life, 1914) by Ivan Cankar, Solzice (Lilies of the Valley, 1949) by Prežihov Voranc, Pridi, mili moj Ariel (Come, My Gentle Ariel, 1965) by Mira Mihelič, Otroštvo (Childhood, 1996) by Franjo Frančič, and Pink (Pink, 2008) by Janja Vidmar. In Cankar’s and Prežih’s texts, which are proposed as the generic prototypes of this subgenre, the fragmentation and lyricism of the narrative, introspection, the specific duality of the chronotope and the figure of the mother as the personification of the narrator’s central values are examined. Mira Mihelič introduces a new type of female protagonist and the figure of the absent mother, whereas Frančič presents motifs of a dysfunctional family and uses the description of the youth correctional facilities to imply disagreement with the prevailing state ideology. Janja Vidmar’s text functions within a new model of the literary system which is characterized by the dictates of the book market success.