Among the Slovene modernists, Ivan Cankar was most focused on the description of a woman in his work. In his novel Na Klancu (1902) and the short story Gospa Judit (1904) he used the method of gender transgression, i.e., he identified with a woman. He mythologized women according to his expectations and image of the other gender. In Francka he created a myth of a suffering mother, which is a descendant of the cult of Madonna, particularly emphasized in Slovene medieval culture. The Christian myth shaped national ideology, i.e., as Francka is the mother of the Slovene nation, this myth was later adopted by the social realists. Unlike in Francka, in Judit Cankar demythologized the myth of a demonic woman destroying men with her corporeality, as well as Pre{eren’s romantic myth of the artist’s muse, the nation’s savior. Judit cannot find a man strong enough for this type of love.
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