JANEZ TRDINA and WASHINGTON IRVING: on the GENESIS of FICTION in THEIR SHORT NARRATIVES THROUGH a COMPARATIVIST LENS1 Alenka Ko
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by University of Washington: ResearchWorks Journal Hosting Slovene Studies 30.2 (1998): 135–53 JANEZ TRDINA AND WASHINGTON IRVING: ON THE GENESIS OF FICTION IN THEIR SHORT NARRATIVES THROUGH A COMPARATIVIST LENS1 Alenka Koron Abstract Following a short overview of Slovenian literary historians’ views on Trdina’s folk tales, the article offers a comparative analysis of two short stories, Washington Irving’s “Rip van Winkle” and Janez Trdina’s “Rajska ptica” (The Bird of Paradise, in the collection Bajke in povesti o Gorjancih [Tales from the Gorjanci Hills]), including aspects of fictionalization in the respective narratives. This is the first time attention has been drawn to Trdina’s transformation of the folk tradition of Kralj Matjaž (King Matthias), which is compared to Irving’s reworking and expansion of the folk tale, indicating their common basis in a long tradition. Finally, the article treats the values and ideology, the socio-historical, ethic, and socio- cultural traits of both works and their literary historical positions. Key words Fiction, folkloristic prose, Rajska ptica (bird of paradise), Rip van Winkle, kralj Matjaž (King Matthias) Trdina’s role in the development of Slovenian short prose narratives, literary life of the second half of the nineteenth century, and in Slovenian literature in general has been studied by a number of Slovenian literary historians, from Ivan Grafenauer, Ivan Prijatelj, Anton Slodnjak, Janez Logar, Boris Paternu, and Jože Pogačnik to Matjaž Kmecl and Gregor Kocijan. They confirm his prominence among the writers of folkloristic prose (Paternu), or among the representatives of folkloric realism (Slodnjak).
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