Illness in a Contemporary Slovenian Novel

Abstract

The second half of the twentieth century was a turning point for the wording of the disease in literature, as the disease—in addition to traditional dysfunctionality—was also attributed to social conditioning. If non-literary narrative is understood as a medical, philosophical or even lay account of illness, literary narrative is much more open in its definitions and ramified in different types and genres. The fundamental difference between them is the way trauma and stigma are represented: the literary treatment of both is based on several features, among which I focused on exciting tension, aestheticization, and self-reflection. The connection between two traumas, medical and social, is most evident in the novels The Ward of Mary Help of Christians by Ivan Cankar and Da me je strah? by Maruša Krese. Despite the different images and roles of the disease, the two novels share a common ethical motivation. The connection between ethical responsibility and disease in an empathic way is also similar in the novels Sonce zahaja v Celju by Eva Kovač and Igranje by Stanka Hrastelj, but they differ in that the first literaryizes two addictions, i.e. heroin and relationship, while the second focuses mainly on the stigmatization of schizophrenia. The polysemy of the disease in all four novels offers possibilities for the reader’s identification, and even more for literary empathy, with the help of which we “build” the foundations for accepting the disease and thus diversity in the world.