Three novels by Ivan Cankar, Tujci (Strangers), Na klancu (On the Hill) and Hiša Marije Pomočnice (The Ward of Our Lady of Mercy), were examined in order to identify the following: an original poetics, a different role for women, provocative love, the meaning of death, particular sincerity, the level of autobiography and narrative empathy. Cankar's first novel, Tujci, is also the first Slovene romantic novel, in which love is a synonym for a triple sense of alienation - from the homeland, art and women; the latter ascribes to women a different, less traditional sexual role. While Na klancu offers much that is new, for it is the first symbolistic novel (the genre of the proletarian novel brings some realistic elements) and the first Slovene novel in which the main character is a woman, the most innovative is without a doubt Hiša Marije Pomočnice. Its sexualisation of women and children, which is at the same time a demythification of the family and society, also re-evaluates the role of death. In Hiša Marije Pomočnice, death as salvation in Tujci and death as confirmation of suffering in Na klancu, is widened into multiple levels of nihilistic, spiritualistic and soteristic connotations. The level of innovation, particularly the highest level of narrative empathy, influences not only the highly original poetics in this novel, but also points to the significant level of innovation in the Slovene literature of the time.
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