In my master's thesis I deal with existentialist elements in contemporary Slovenian short prose. For comparative analysis, I chose three Slovenian short prose collections, the collection Exercises in Anxiety (2012) by Vinko Möderndorfer, Unleashed (2017) by Ana Schnabl and the collection Bites (2018) by Andrej Blatnik.
In this paper, I explore the extent to which I can apply existentialist philosophy to selected collections of short stories, which are the most frequently discussed topics in existentialist literature, and how they are addressed in collections. I am also interested in how existentialist elements in selected literature change according to the values of the modern world.
I assumed that the themes that always arise (violence, corporality, relationships) are portrayed existentialistically through fiction. Due to the same narrative structure (short story) and common motives, I found it easier to understand the existentialist philosophical basis of all collections and identify socially conditioned factors in the reference time and space of the texts, as well as similarities in portraying emptied literary subjects.
In the analysis, I relied on studies of literary theory on short stories and on philosophical writings on existentialism, which I used in analyzing the elements of content. I confirmed my basic hypothesis and also realised that common features appear in all collections. Existentialist elements are condensed in the texts and portrayed in accordance with modern times – also as a critique of today's values. I studied gender relations, family relationships, the physicality of literary characters, the category of anxiety, and violence.
I also confirmed the thesis that elements of existentialist philosophy are best revealed through intimate relationships between literary characters, as all three authors construct characters in deformed relationships, consistent with the view in existential philosophy that "there are no kindred spirits, no perfect couples and other halves." The authors portray literary characters in the same way, as their texts were created in the same environment and at short intervals.
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