The main goal of this thesis is to determine whether the current domain of Slovenian literature contains examples of modern fantasy which can also be termed “post-Tolkien” fantasy. The primary example of this genre, which emerged in the mid 20th century in the west, is considered to be Tolkien’s trilogy, The Lord of the Rings. After the year 2000, the genre also saw its emergence in Slovenian literature, as the appearance of several film adaptations of renowned fantasy novels sparked new interest in this topic. The early literary attempts include the work by authors such as Andrej Ivanuša, Marko Robnik, Urban Klančnik, Bojan Ekselenski and Samo Petančič, while the later include Marget Belani, Natalija Nanevska Đuričić and Uroš Topić. However, such writings remain critically unacclaimed, mostly unrecognized, and often also show absence of proofreading. The present thesis investigates the basic elements of modern fantasy in these works, following the approach proposed by Jakob J. Kenda. The results suggest that these are more instances of literary attempts, rather than actual foundational pieces of the discussed genre, and hence seem the result of hobbyist writing that lacks literary quality. This conclusion is supported by several observations. The style in these works is under-developed and superficial. Aiming to imitate a film camera, it seems mostly influenced by the fast-paced narration of action films. In addition, the characters are flat, the fantasy worlds are poorly constructed, and there is a distinct lack of awareness of the imaginary, which signals oversight of a key aspect of fantasy.
|
